initial commit of ebook 14002HEADmain

8 files changed, 23773 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/14002-0.txt b/14002-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4bc9c21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/14002-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7659 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14002 ***
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+The Man-God Whom We Await
+
+by
+
+ALI NOMAD
+
+1915
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW BIRTH; WHAT IT IS; INSTANCES DESCRIBED
+
+
+The religions and philosophies of the Orient and the Occident compared;
+their chief difference; The mistaken idea of death. Cosmic Consciousness
+not common in the Orient. Why? What the earnest disciple strives for. The
+Real and the unreal. Buddha's agonized yearnings; why he was moved by them
+with such irresistible power; the ultimate victory. The identity of The
+Absolute; The Oriental teachings; "The Spiritual Maxims of Brother
+Lawrence;" The seemingly miraculous power of the Oriental initiate; does
+he really "talk" to birds and animals? How they learn to know and read "the
+heart of the world." The inner temples throughout Japan. The strange
+experience of a Zen (a Holy Order of Japan), student-priest in attaining
+_mukti_. The key to Realization. An address by Manikyavasayar, one of the
+great Tamil saints of Southern India. The Hindu conception of Cosmic
+Consciousness. The Japanese idea of the state. The Buddhist "Life-saving"
+monasteries; how the priests extend their consciousness to immeasurable
+distances at will. The last incarnation of God in India. His marvelous
+insight. The urge of the spiritual yearning for the "Voice of the Mother."
+His twelve years of struggle. His final illumination. The unutterable bliss
+pictured in his own words. What the Persian mystics allusion to "union with
+the Beloved" signifies; its exoteric and its esoteric meaning. The "Way of
+the Gods." The chief difference between the message of Jesus and that of
+other holy men. The famous "Song of Solomon" and the different
+interpretations; a new version. A French writer's evident glimpses of the
+new birth. Man's relation to the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN
+
+
+The great riddle and a new solution. The persistence of the ideal of
+Perfected Man; Has it any basis in history? The superlative faculty of
+spiritual sight as depicted by artists, painters and sculptors. Symbols of
+consciousness. The way in which the higher consciousness expresses itself.
+Certain peculiar traits which distinguish those destined to the influx. The
+abode of the gods; The conditioned promise of godhood in Man. What is
+Nirvana? The Vedantan idea. The Christian idea. Did Jesus teach the kingdom
+of God on earth? Is there a basis for belief in physical immortality? A
+new explanation. The perilous paths. Those who "will see God." Evolution
+of consciousness from prehistoric man to the highest developed beings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+
+The Divine spark. Consciousness the essence of everything. Axioms of
+universal Occultism. The great central light. The teachings of Oriental
+seers regarding the ultimate goal. Different stages of mankind. Births in
+consciousness. Physical consciousness: its limitations. Mental
+consciousness: the jungles of the mind. Soul consciousness; whither it
+leads. The irresistible urge. Why we obey it. Sayings of ancient
+manuscripts. Perfecting Light. The disciple's test. Awakening of the divine
+man. Is he now on earth? What is meant by the awakening of the inner Self.
+Is the _atman_ asleep? The doctrine of illusion; its relation to Cosmic
+Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS
+
+
+The Dark Ages. The esoteric meaning of religious practices. The penetrating
+power of spiritual insight. The mystery of conversion. The paradox of
+Self-attainment and the necessity for selflessness. The Oriental teachings
+regarding the Self. The wisdom of the Illumined Master. The test of fitness
+for Nirvana. What caused Buddha the greatest anxiety? Experiences of
+Oriental sages and their testimony. What correlation exists between
+Buddha's desire and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness among
+Occidental disciples.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS
+
+
+The wonderful brilliancy of Illumination. Dr. Bucke's description of the
+Cosmic Light; his opinion regarding the possibility of becoming more
+general. Peculiar methods of producing spiritual ecstacy, as described by
+Lord Tennyson and others. The Power and Presence of God, as a reality. The
+dissolution of race barriers. The effacement of the sense of sin among the
+Illuminati. What is meant by the phrase "naked and unashamed." Will such a
+state ever exist on the earth? Efforts of those who have experienced Cosmic
+Consciousness to express the experience; the strange similarity found in
+all attempts. Is there any evidence that Cosmic Consciousness is possible
+to all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION
+
+
+The simple religion of early Japan. The inner or secret shrine: its
+esoteric and its exoteric office. The Mystic Brotherhoods. Why the esoteric
+meanings have always been veiled. The great teachers and the uniformity of
+their instructions. Philosophy as taught by Vivekananda. The fundamental
+doctrine of Buddhism. Have the present-day Buddhists lost the key? Is
+religion necessary to Illumination? The fruits of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER
+
+
+The salient features of the Law as given by Moses to his people. Had the
+ancient Hebrews any knowledge of Illumination and its results? The symbol
+of liberation. Its esoteric meaning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE
+
+
+Prenatal conditions influencing Buddha. His strange temperament. His
+peculiar trances and their effect upon him. Why Buddha endured such
+terrible struggles; is suffering necessary to Cosmic Consciousness? From
+what was Buddha finally liberated? The simplicity of Buddha's commandments
+in the light of Cosmic Consciousness. The fundamental truths taught by
+Buddha and all other sages. Buddha's own words regarding death and Nirvana.
+Last words to his disciples. How the teachings of Buddha compare with the
+vision of Cosmic Consciousness. His method of development of spiritual
+consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JESUS OF NAZARETH
+
+
+The astonishing similarity found in all religious precepts; the
+distinguishing feature of the teachings as delivered by Jesus. His repeated
+allusion to "the light within." The great commandment he gave to his
+disciples. Love the basis of the teachings of all Illumined minds. The
+"Second Coming of Christ." The signs of the times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PAUL OF TARSUS
+
+
+His undoubted experience of illumination and its effects. Was Paul changed
+by "conversion," or what was the wonderful power that altered his whole
+life? Why Paul sought seclusion after his illumination. Characteristics of
+all Illumined ones. The desire for simplicity. Paul's incomparable
+description of "the Love that never faileth." The safe guide to
+illumination. The "first fruits of the spirit," as prophesied by Paul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MOHAMMED
+
+
+Mohammed a predestined Leader. Condition of Arabia at his birth. Prophecies
+of a Messiah. His peculiar psychic temperament; his frequent attacks of
+catalepsy; his sufferings because of doubt; his never-ceasing urge toward a
+final revelation. His changed state after the revelation on Mt. Hara. His
+unswerving belief in his mission; his devotion to Truth; His simplicity and
+humility. His claim to Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
+
+
+Swedenborg's early life. His sudden change from materialism. The difficulty
+of clear enunciation. His unfailing belief in the divinity of his
+revelations. How they compare with experiences of others. The frequent
+reception of the Light. The blessing of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
+BALZAC
+
+
+The way to Illumination through intellectual cultivation; Emerson a notable
+example; The Cosmic note in his essays and conversations. Emerson's
+religious nature. His familiarity with Oriental philosophy; his remarkable
+discrimination; the peculiar penetrating quality of his intellect. His
+never failing assurance of unity with the Divine. His belief in a spiritual
+life. Did Emerson predict a Millenium? His writings as they reflect light
+upon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+LEO TOLSTOI--RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER
+
+
+Tolstoi the strangest and most unusual figure of the Nineteenth Century;
+His almost unbearable sufferings; his avowed materialism; his horror of
+death; The prevailing gloom of his writings and to what due. Incidents in
+his life previous to his illumination. The remarkable and radical change
+made by his experience. To what was due Tolstoi's great struggle and
+suffering? Why the great philosopher sought to die in a hut. His idea not
+one of penance. The signal change in his life after illumination. What he
+says of this.
+
+
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC
+
+
+Balzac's classification as of the psychic temperament. His amazing power of
+magnetic attraction. His feminine refinement in dress. His power of
+inspiration gave him his place in French literature. The dominant motive of
+all his writings. His unshakable conviction of immortality. His power to
+function on both planes of consciousness. The lesson to be drawn from
+Seraphita. Balzac's evident intention, and why veiled. The inevitable
+conclusion to be drawn from the Symbolical character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT
+
+
+Poetry the language of Cosmic Consciousness. Unconscious instruments of the
+Cosmic law. The true poet and the maker of rhymes. The mission and scope of
+the poetical temperament. How "temperament" affects expression. No royal
+road to Illumination. Teaching of Oriental mysticism. Whitman's
+extraordinary experience. His idea of "Perfections." Lord Tennyson's two
+distinct states of consciousness; his early boyhood and strange
+experiences. Facts about his illumination. The after effects. Tennyson's
+vision of the future. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature. How he attained and
+lost spiritual illumination. How he again received the great Light. The
+evidences of two states of consciousness. Outline of his illumination.
+Noguchi--a most remarkable instance of Illumination in early youth; Lines
+expressive of an exalted state of consciousness; how it resulted in later
+life. The strange case of William Sharp and "Fiona Macleod:" a perfect
+example of dual consciousness; the distinguishing features of the self and
+the Self; the fine line of demarcation. How the writer succeeded in living
+two distinct lives and the result. Remarkable contribution to literature. A
+puzzling instance of phases of consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
+
+
+The four Oriental methods of liberation. The goal of the soul's pilgrimage.
+Strange theory advanced. Revolutionary results that follow. How to perceive
+the actuality of the higher Self. Gaining immortality "In the flesh;" What
+Revelation has promised and its substantiation in modern Science. The prize
+and the price. Some valuable Yoga exercises to induce spiritual ecstacy.
+What "union with God" really means. The "Brahmic Bliss" of the Upanashads.
+The new race; its powers and privileges. "The man-god whom we await" as
+described by Emerson.
+
+
+
+
+THE SELF AND SYMBOL
+
+
+  Thou most Divine! above all women
+  Above all men in consciousness.
+
+  Thou in thy nearness to me
+  Hast shown me paths of love.
+  Yea; walks that lead from hell
+  To the great light; where life and love
+    Do ever reign.
+
+  Thou hast taught to me a patience
+  To behold whatever state;
+  However beautiful and joyful; however ugly and sorrowful.
+
+  To know that these are--all!--but
+  The glimmerings of the greater life--
+  Expressions of the infinite.
+
+  According to the finality of that moment
+  Now to come; in the eternal now, which thou
+  Sweet Presence, hast awakened me to--
+  I see the light--the way.
+
+  An everlasting illumination
+  That takes me to the gate; the open door
+  To the house of God.
+  There I find most priceless jewels;
+  The key to all the ways,
+  That lead from _Om_ to thee.
+
+  A mistake--an off-turn from the apparent road of right
+  Is but the bruising of thy temple,
+  Calling thy Self--thy soul--
+  The God within; showing thee,
+  The _nita_ of it all; which is but the half of me.
+
+  And as thy consciousness of the two
+  The _nita_ and the _ita_, comes to thee
+  A three is formed--the trinity is found.
+
+  Through thee the Deity hast spoken
+  Uniting the two in the one;
+
+  Revealing the illusion of mortality
+  The message of _Om_ to the Illumined.
+
+--Ali Nomad.
+
+
+
+
+ARGUMENT
+
+
+
+
+Man is essentially a spiritual being.
+
+The source of this spiritual Omniscience we may not, in our finite
+intelligence, fully cognize, because full cognition would preclude the
+possibility of finite expression.
+
+The destiny of man is perfection.
+
+Man perfected becomes a god.
+
+"Only the gods are immortal," we are told.
+
+Let us consider what this means, supposing it to be an axiom of truth.
+
+Mortality is subject to change and death. Mortality is the manifest--the
+stage upon which "man in his life plays many parts."
+
+Immortality, is what the word says it is--godhood re-cognized in the
+mortal. "Im" or, "Om"--the more general term--stands for the Changeless.
+Birthless. Deathless. Unnamable Power that holds the worlds in space, and
+puts intelligence into man.
+
+Biologists, even though they were to succeed in reproducing life by
+chemical processes from so-called "lifeless" (sterilized) _matter_, making
+so high a form of manifestation as man himself, yet could never name _the
+power by which they accomplished it_.
+
+Always there must remain the Unknownable--the Absolute.
+
+"Om," therefore, is the word we use to express this Omniscient, Omnipotent
+and Omnipresent power.
+
+The term "mortal" we have already defined. The compound immortal, applied
+to individual man, stands for one who has made his "at-one-ment" with Om,
+and who has, while still in the mortal body, re-cognized himself as one
+with Om.
+
+This is what it means to escape the "second death," to which the merely
+mortal consciousness is subject.
+
+This is the goal of every human life; this is the essence, the _substance_
+of all religious systems and all philosophies.
+
+The only chance for disputation among theologians and philosophers, lies in
+the way of accomplishing this at-one-ment. There is not the slightest
+opportunity for a difference of opinion as what they wish to accomplish.
+
+Admitting then, that the goal of every soul is the same--immortality--(the
+mortal consciousness cognizing itself as Om), we come to a consideration of
+the evidence we may find in support of this axiom. This evidence we do
+_not_ find satisfactory, in spirit communication; in psychic experiences;
+in hypnotic phenomena; and astral trips; important, and reliable as these
+many psychic research phenomena are.
+
+These are not satisfactory or convincing evidences of our at-one-ment with
+Om, because they do not preclude the probability of the "second death;" but
+on the contrary, they verify it.
+
+However, aside from all these psychic phenomena, there is a phase of human
+experience, much more rare but becoming somewhat general, that transcends
+phenomena of every kind.
+
+The western world has given to these experiences the term "cosmic
+consciousness," which term is self explanatory.
+
+The Orientals have long known of this goal of the soul, and they have terms
+to express this, varying with the many types of the Oriental mind, but all
+meaning the same thing. This meaning, from our Occidental viewpoint, is
+best translated in the term liberation, signifying to be set free from the
+limitations of sense, and of self-consciousness, and to have glimpsed the
+larger area of consciousness, that takes in the very cosmos.
+
+This experience is accompanied by a great light, whether this light is
+manifested as spiritual, or as intellectual power, determines its
+expression.
+
+The object of this book is to call attention to some of the more pronounced
+instances of this Illumination, and to classify them, according as they
+have been expressed through religions enthusiasm; poetical fervor; or great
+intellectual power.
+
+But we have also one other argument to make, and this we present with a
+conviction of its _truth_, while conceding that it must remain a _theory_,
+until proven, each individual, man or woman, for himself and herself. The
+postulate is this: immortality (i.e. godhood) is bi-sexual. No male person
+can by any possibility become an immortal god, in, of and by himself; no
+female person can be complete without the "other half" that makes the ONE.
+
+Each and every SOUL, therefore, has its spiritual counterpart--its "other
+half," with which it unites on the spiritual plane, when the time comes for
+attainment of immortality.
+
+Sex is an eternal verity. The entire Cosmos is bi-sexual. Everything in the
+visible universe; in the manifest, is the result of this universal
+principle. "As above so below," is a safe rule, as far as the IDEA goes.
+This hypothesis does not preclude _perfection_ above, of that which we find
+below, but any radical reversion or repudiation of nature is inconceivable.
+
+"Male and female created he them." This being true, male and female must
+they return to the source from which they sprung, completing the circle,
+and gaining what?
+
+_Consciousness of godhood; of completeness in counterpartal union. Not
+absorption_ of consciousness, but _union_, which is quite a different
+idea.
+
+Out of this counterpartal union a race of gods will be born, and these
+_supermen_, shall "inherit the earth" making it a "fit dwelling place for
+the gods."
+
+This earth is now being made fit. This fact may seem a far distant hope if
+we do not judge with the eyes of the seer, but its proof lies in the
+emancipation of woman. Its evidences are many and varied, but the awakening
+of woman is the _cause_.
+
+This awakening of woman constitutes the first rays of the dawn--that
+long-looked for Millenium, which many of us have regarded as a mere figure
+of speech, instead of as a literal truth.
+
+The argument is not that there has been no individual awakening until the
+present time; but that never before in the finite history of the world has
+there been such a general awakening, and as it is self evident that
+conditions will reflect the idea of the majority, the fact that woman is
+being given her rightful place in the sense-conscious life, proves that the
+earth will be a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than have
+hitherto constituted the majority.
+
+The numerous instances of Illumination, or cosmic consciousness which are
+forcing attention at the present time, prove that there is a
+_race-awakening_ to a realization of our unity with Om.
+
+Another point which we trust these pages will make clear is this: So-called
+"revelation" is neither a personal "discovery," nor any special act of a
+divine power. "God spake thus and so to me," is a phrase which the
+self-conscious initiate employs, _because he has lost sight of the_ cosmic
+light, or because he finds it expedient to use that phraseology in
+delivering the message of cosmic consciousness.
+
+If we will substitute the term "_initiation_," for the term "_revelation_,"
+we will have a clearer idea of the truth.
+
+Perhaps some of our readers will feel that the terms mean the same, but for
+the most part, those who have employed the word "revelation," have used it
+as implying that the plan of the cosmos was unfinished, and that the
+Creator, having found some person suitable to convey the latest decision
+to mankind, natural laws had been suspended and the revelation made.
+
+It is to correct this view, that we emphasize the distinction between the
+two words.
+
+The cosmos is complete. "As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever
+shall be, worlds without end."
+
+A circle is without beginning or end. We, in our individual consciousness
+may traverse this circle, but our failure to realize its completeness does
+not change the fact that it is finished.
+
+We can not add to the universal consciousness; nor take away therefrom.
+
+But we can extend our own area of consciousness from the narrow limits of
+the personal self, into the heights and depths of the atman and who shall
+set limitations to the power of the atman, the higher Self, when it has
+attained at-one-ment with Om?
+
+It is not the purpose of this book to trace the spiritual ascent of man
+further than to point out the wide gulf between the degrees of
+consciousness manifested in the lower animals and that of human
+consciousness; again tracing in the human, the ever-widening area of his
+cognition of the personal self, and its needs, to the awakening of the soul
+and its needs; which needs include the welfare of all living things as an
+absolute necessity to individual happiness.
+
+Altruism, therefore, is not a virtue. It is a means of
+self-preservation--without this degree of initiation into the boundless
+area of universal, or cosmic consciousness, we may not escape the karmic
+law.
+
+The revelations, therefore, upon which are founded the numerous religious
+systems, are comparable with the many and various degrees of initiation
+into THAT WHICH IS.
+
+They represent the degree which the initiate has taken in the lodge.
+
+It may be argued that this fact of individual initiation into the
+ever-present truth of Being, as into a lodge, offers no proof that this
+earth is to ultimately become a heaven. It may be that this planet is the
+outer-most lodge room and that there will never be a sufficient number of
+initiates to make the earth a fit dwelling place for a higher order of
+beings than now inhabit it. This may, indeed, be true. But all evidence
+tends toward the hope that even the planet itself will come under the
+regenerating power of Illumination.
+
+All prophecies embody this promise; all that we know of what materialists
+call "evolution" and occultists might well name "uncovering of
+consciousness," points to a time when "God's will," "shall be done on earth
+as it is in heaven."
+
+All who have attained to cosmic consciousness in whatever degree, have
+prophecied a _time_, when this blessing would descend upon every one; but
+the difficulty in adequately explaining this great gift seems also to have
+been the burden of their cry.
+
+Jesus sought repeatedly to describe to his hearers the wonders of the
+cosmic sense, but realized that he was too far in advance of the cyclic
+end; but even as at that time, a number of disciples were capable of
+receiving the Illumination, so to-day, a larger number are capable of
+attainment. If this number is great enough to bring about the
+regeneration--the perfecting--of the earth conditions, then it _must be
+accomplished_.
+
+We believe that it is. We make the claim that the Millenium _has dawned_;
+and although it may be many years before the light of the morning breaks
+into the full light of the day, yet the rays of the dawn are dispelling the
+world's long night.
+
+In his powerful and prophetic story "In the Days of the Comet," H.G. Wells,
+tells of a _great change_ that comes over the world following an
+atmospheric phenomenon in which a "green vapor" is generated in the clouds
+and falls upon the earth with instantaneous effect.
+
+As this peculiar vapor descends, it has the effect of putting every one to
+sleep; this sleep continues for three days and when people finally awake,
+their interior nature has undergone a complete change.
+
+Where before they "saw dimly," they now see clearly; the petty differences
+and quarrels are perceived in their true perspective. Instead of place, and
+power, and influence, and wealth, being all-important goals of ambition as
+before the change, every one now strives to be of service to the world.
+Love and kindness become greater factors than commercial expediency and
+business success.
+
+In many respects, Wells' description of the great change and its effect
+upon people, corresponds with the effect of Illumination.
+
+The sense of entering into the very heart of things; of growing plants; the
+birds and the little wood animals; the intense sympathy and understanding
+of life described by him, sounds like the effect of cosmic consciousness,
+as related by nearly all who have attained it.
+
+How the world's activities are resumed after the change, and under what
+vastly different incentives people work, form a part of the story, which is
+written as fiction, but which contains the seed of a great truth.
+
+This truth is expressed in science, as human achievement, and in religion
+as fulfilled prophecy, but the truth is the same.
+
+Both religion and science point to a _time_ when this earth will know
+freedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have hitherto
+been regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be completely
+controlled; not _may be_, but _will be_. Manual labor will cease. National
+Eugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to the inevitable
+conclusion, that no race can by any possibility be improved, while the most
+perfect physical species are reserved for armies.
+
+Awakening woman will refuse--indeed they are now refusing--to bear children
+to be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut of commercial
+competition.
+
+Those who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic
+consciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the
+"second coming of Christ," not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as a
+factor in human attainment.
+
+"For I am persuaded," said St. Paul, "that neither death nor life, nor
+angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
+powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God."
+
+If we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that
+we shall know, and _experience_ that boundless, deathless, perfect,
+satisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of
+immortality; which is an attribute (we may say the _one_ attribute) of
+God.
+
+We are not looking for the birth of _a_ Christ-child, but of _the_
+Christ-child; we are not looking for a second coming of _a_ man who shall
+be as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of _the_ man (homo),
+who shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of Nazareth; as was
+Guatama, the Buddha.
+
+That there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this
+consciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance of
+evidence is for a more general awakening to the light of Illumination.
+
+"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an
+eye," said St. Paul.
+
+The prophecy of "the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under
+her feet," is not of _a_ woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race of men
+who have attained cosmic consciousness.
+
+Nothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great light
+and love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.
+
+It will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are
+groping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation; of
+fear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal
+happiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or science or
+politics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic and empirical
+attempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.
+
+In the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED
+
+
+The chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the
+Orient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental
+systems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the goal of
+these efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.
+
+That is, Oriental religion--speaking in the broad sense--teaches that the
+disciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the
+Self, the _atman_, from the enchantment or delusion, the _maya_, of the
+external world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical
+death, _mrityu_, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily
+bring with it immortality.
+
+He well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence.
+Death does not of itself, change the condition of _maya_, in which the
+disciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation--_mukti_,
+which condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.
+
+Immortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,--yea, it must
+be _earned_.
+
+It is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality is
+an attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the divine
+essence of Brahman (The Absolute), _mukti_ may be attained by earnest
+seeking, and thus immortality be _realized_.
+
+This condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages and
+chelas, such for instance as glimpsing the _Brahmic splendor; mutki;
+samadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana_; becoming "_twice-born_."
+
+In recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of
+instances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described
+as "cosmic consciousness;" "illumination;" "liberation;" the "baptism of
+the Holy Ghost;" and becoming "immersed in the great white light."
+
+Baptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into religious
+systems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the necessity for
+Illumination in order that the soul may be "saved" from further
+incarnations--from further experience.
+
+The term cosmic consciousness as well describes this condition of the
+disciple, as any words can, perhaps, although the term liberation is more
+literal, since the influx of this state of being, is actually the
+liberation of the _atman_, the eternal Self, from the illusion of the
+external, or _maya_.
+
+Contrary to the general belief, instances of cosmic consciousness are not
+extremely rare, although they are not at all general. Particularly is this
+true in the Orient, where the chief concern as it were, of the people has
+for centuries been the realization of this state of liberation.
+
+The Oriental initiate in the study of religious practices, realizes that
+these devotions are for the sole purpose of attaining _mukti_, whereas in
+the Occident, the very general idea held by the religious devotee, is one
+of penance; of propitiation of Deity. This truth applies essentially to the
+initiate, the aspirant for priesthood, or guru-ship. No qualified priest or
+guru of the Orient harbors any doubt regarding the _object_, or purpose of
+religious practices. The attainment of the spiritual experience described
+in occidental language as "cosmic consciousness" is the goal.
+
+The goal is not a peaceful death; nor yet an humble entrance into heaven as
+a place of abode; nor is it the ultimate satisfying of a God of extreme
+justice; the "eye for an eye" God of the fear-stricken theologian.
+
+One purpose only, actuates the earnest disciple, like a glorious star
+lighting the path of the mariner on life's troublous sea. That goal is the
+attainment of that beatific state in which is revealed to the soul and the
+mind, the real and the unreal; the eternal substance of truth, and the
+shifting kaleidoscope of _maya_.
+
+Nor can there be any purpose in the pursuit of either religion or
+philosophy other than this attainment; nor does the unceasing practice of
+rites and ceremonies; of contemplation; renunciation; prayers; fasting;
+penance; devotion; service; adoration; absteminousness; or isolation,
+insure the attainment of this state of bliss. There is no bartering; no
+assurance of reward for good conduct. It is not as though one would say,
+"Ah, my child, if thou wouldst purchase liberation thou shalt follow
+this recipe."
+
+No golden promises of speedy entrance into Paradise may be given the
+disciple. Nor any exact rules, or laws of equation by virtue of which the
+goal shall be reached. Nor yet may any specific time be correctly estimated
+in which to serve a novitiate, before final initiation.
+
+Many indeed, attain a high degree of spirituality, and yet not have found
+the key of perfect liberation, although the goal may be not far off.
+
+Many, very many, on earth to-day, are living so close to the borderland of
+the new birth that they catch fleeting glimpses of the longed-for freedom,
+but the full import of its meaning does not dawn. There is yet another
+veil, however thin, between them and the Light.
+
+The Buddha spent seven years in an intense longing and desire to attain
+that liberation which brought him consciousness of godhood--deliverance
+from the sense of sin and sorrow that had oppressed him; immunity from the
+necessity for reincarnation.
+
+Jesus became a _Christ_ only after passing through the agonies of
+Gethsemane. A Christ is one who has found liberation; who has been born
+again in his individual consciousness into the inner areas of consciousness
+which are of the _atman_, and this attainment establishes his identity with
+The Absolute.
+
+All oriental religions and philosophies teach that this state of
+consciousness, is possible to all men; therefore all men are gods in
+embryo.
+
+But no philosophy or religion may promise the devotee the realization of
+this grace, nor yet can they deny its possible attainment to any.
+
+Strangely enough, if we estimate men by externalities, we discover that
+there is no measure by which the supra-conscious man may be measured. The
+obscure and unlearned have been known to possess this wonderful power which
+dissolves the seeming, and leaves only the contemplation of the Real.
+
+So also, men of great learning have experienced this rebirth; but it would
+seem that much cultivation of the intellectual qualities, unless
+accompanied by an humble and reverent spirit, frequently acts as a barrier
+to the realization of supra-consciousness.
+
+In "Texts of Taoism," Kwang-Tse, one of the Illuminati, writes:
+
+"He whose mind is thus grandly fixed, emits a heavenly light. In him who
+emits this heavenly light, men see the true man (i.e., the _atman_; the
+Self). When a man has cultivated himself to this point, thenceforth he
+remains constant in himself. When he is thus constant in himself, what is
+merely the human element will leave him, but Heaven will help him. Those
+whom Heaven helps, we call the sons of Heaven. Those who would, by
+learning, attain to this, seek for what they _can not learn_."
+
+Thus it will be seen, that according to the reports offered us by this wise
+man, that which men call learning guarantees no power regarding that area
+of consciousness which brings Illumination--liberation from enchantment, of
+the senses--_mukti_.
+
+Again, in the case of Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, although he left
+tomes of manuscript, it is asserted authoritatively, that he "possessed no
+learning" as that word is understood to mean accumulated knowledge.
+
+In "The Spiritual Maxims" of Brother Lawrence, the Carmelite monk, we find
+this:
+
+"You must realize that you reach God through the heart, and not through the
+mind."
+
+"Stupidity is closer to deliverance than intellect which innovates," is a
+phrase ascribed to a Mohammedan saint, and do not modern theologians report
+with enthusiasm, the unlettered condition of Jesus?
+
+In the Orient, the would-be initiate shuts out the voice of the world, that
+he may know the heart of the world. Many, very many, are the years of
+isolation and preparation which such an earnest one accepts in order that
+he may attain to that state of supra-consciousness in which "nothing is
+hidden that shall not be revealed" to his clarified vision.
+
+In the inner temples throughout Japan, for example, there are persons who
+have not only attained this state of consciousness, but who have also
+retained it, to such a degree and to such an extent, that no event of
+cosmic import may occur in any part of the world, without these illumined
+ones instantly becoming aware of its happening, and indeed, this knowledge
+is possessed by them _before_ the event has taken place in the external
+world, since their consciousness is not limited to time, space, or place
+(relative terms only), but is cosmic, or universal.
+
+This power is not comparable with what Occidental Psychism knows as
+"clairvoyance," or "spirit communication."
+
+The state of consciousness is wholly unlike anything which modern
+spiritualism reports in its phenomena. Far from being in any degree a
+suspension of consciousness as is what is known as mediumship, this power
+partakes of the quality of omniscience. It harmonizes with and blends into
+all the various degrees and qualities of consciousness in the cosmos, and
+becomes "at-one" with the universal heart-throb.
+
+A Zen student priest was once discovered lying face downward on the grass
+of the hill outside the temple; his limbs were rigid, and not a pulse
+throbbed in his tense and immovable form. He was allowed to remain
+undisturbed as long as he wished. When at length he stood up, his face wore
+an expression of terrible anguish. It seemed to have grown old. His _guru_
+stood beside him and gently asked: "What did you, my son?"
+
+"O, my Master," cried out the youth, "I have heard and felt all the burdens
+of the world. I know how the mother feels when she looks upon her starving
+babe. I have heard the cry of the hunted things in the woods; I have felt
+the horror of fear; I have borne the lashes and the stripes of the convict;
+I have entered the heart of the outcast and the shame-stricken; I have been
+old and unloved and I have sought refuge in self-destruction; I have lived
+a thousand lives of sorrow and strife and of fear, and O, my Master, I
+would that I could efface this anguish from the heart of the world."
+
+The _guru_ looked in wonder upon the young priest and he said, "It is well,
+my son. Soon thou shalt know that the burden is lifted."
+
+Great compassion, the attribute of the Lord Buddha, was the key which
+opened to this young student priest, the door of _mukti_, and although his
+compassion was not less, after he had entered into that blissful
+realization, yet so filled did he become with a sense of bliss and
+inexpressible realization of eternal love, that all consciousness of sorrow
+was soon wiped out.
+
+This condition of effacement of all identity, as it were, with sorrow, sin,
+and death, seems inseparable from the attainment of liberation, and has
+been testified to by all who have recorded their emotions in reaching this
+state of consciousness. In other respects, the acquisition of this
+supra-consciousness varies greatly with the initiate.
+
+In all instances, there is also an overwhelming conviction of the
+transitory character of the external world, and the emptiness of all
+man-bestowed honors and riches.
+
+A story is told of the Mohammedan saint Fudail Ibn Tyad, which well
+illustrates this. The Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, learning of the extreme
+simplicity and asceticism of his life exclaimed, "O, Saint, how great is
+thy self-abnegation."
+
+To which the saint made answer: "Thine is greater." "Thou dost but jest,"
+said the Caliph in wonderment. "Nay, not so, great Caliph," replied the
+saint. "I do but make abnegation of this world which is transitory, and
+thou makest abnegation of the next which will last forever."
+
+However, the phrase, "self-abnegation," predicates the concept of
+sacrifice; the giving up of something much to be desired, while, as a
+matter of truth, there arises in the consciousness of the Illumined One, a
+natural contempt for the "baubles" of externality; therefore there is no
+sacrifice. Nothing is given up. On the contrary, the gain is infinitely
+great.
+
+Manikyavasayar, one of the great Tamil saints of Southern India, addressed
+a gathering of disciples thus:
+
+"Why go about sucking from each flower, the droplet of honey, when the
+heavy mass of pure and sweet honey is available?" By which he questioned
+why they sought with such eagerness the paltry pleasures of this world,
+when the state of cosmic consciousness might be attained.
+
+The thought of India, is however, one of ceaseless repudiation of all that
+is external, and the Hindu conception of _mukti_, or cosmic consciousness,
+differs in many respects from that reported by the Illumined in other
+countries, even while all reports have many emotions in common.
+
+Again we find that reports of the cosmic influx, differ with the century in
+which the Illumined one lived. This may be accounted for in the fact that
+an experience so essentially spiritual can not be accurately expressed in
+terms of sense consciousness.
+
+Far different from the Hindu idea, for example, is the report of a woman
+who lived in Japan in the early part of the nineteenth century. This woman
+was very poor and obscure, making her frugal living by braiding mats. So
+intense was her consciousness of unity with all that is, that on seeing a
+flower growing by the wayside, she would "enter into its spirit," as she
+said, with an ecstacy of enjoyment, that would cause her to become
+momentarily entranced.
+
+She was known to the country people around her as _Sho-Nin_, meaning
+literally "above man in consciousness."
+
+It is said that the wild animals of the wood, were wont to come to her
+door, and she talked to them, as though they were humans. An injured hare
+came limping to her door in the early morning hours and "spoke" to her.
+
+Upon which, she arose and dressed, and opened the door of her dwelling with
+words of greeting, as she would use to a neighbor.
+
+She washed the soil from the injured foot, and "loved" it back to
+wholeness, so that when the hare departed there was no trace of injury.
+
+She declared that she spoke to and was answered by, the birds and the
+flowers, and the animals, just as she was by persons.
+
+Indeed, among the high priests of the Jains, and the Zens (sects which may
+be classed as highly developed Occultists), entering into animal
+consciousness, is a power possessed by all initiates.
+
+Passing along a highway near a Zen temple, the driver of a cart was stopped
+by a priest, who gently said: "My good man, with some of the money you have
+in your purse please buy your faithful horse a bucket of oats. He tells me
+he has been so long fed on rice straw that he is despondent."
+
+To the Occidental mind this will doubtless appear to be the result of keen
+observation, the priest being able to see from the appearance of the animal
+that he was fed on straw. They will believe, perhaps, that the priest
+expressed his observations in the manner described to more fully impress
+the driver, but this conclusion will be erroneous. The priest, possessing
+the enlarged or all-inclusive consciousness which in the west is termed
+"cosmic," actually did speak to the horse.
+
+Nor is this fact one which the western mind should be unable to follow.
+Science proves the fact of consciousness existing in the atoms composing
+even what has been termed _inanimate_ objects. How much more comprehensible
+to our understanding is the consciousness of an animate organism, even
+though this organism be not more complex than the horse.
+
+There is a Buddhist monastery built high on the cliff overlooking the Japan
+Inland sea, which is called a "life-saving" monastery.
+
+The priests who preside over this temple, possess the power of extending
+their consciousness over many miles of sea, and on a vibration attuned to a
+pitch above the sound of wind and wave, so that they can hear a call of
+distress from fishermen who need their help.
+
+This fact being admitted, might be accounted for by the uninitiated, as a
+wonderfully "trained ear," which by cultivation and long practice detects
+sounds at a seemingly miraculous distance.
+
+But the priests know how many are in a wrecked boat, and can describe them,
+and "converse" with them, although the fishermen are not aware that they
+have "talked" to the priest.
+
+Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the latest incarnation of God in India, and
+the master to whom the late Swami Vivekananda gives such high praise and
+devotion, lived almost wholly in that exalted state of consciousness which
+would appear to be more essentially _spiritual_, than _cosmic_ in the
+strict sense of the latter word, since _cosmic_ should certainly imply
+all-inclusiveness, rather than wholly _spiritual_ (spiritual being here
+used as an extremely high vibration of the cosmos).
+
+We learn that Sri Ramakrishna was a man comparatively unlettered, and yet
+his insight was so marvelous, his consciousness so exalted that the most
+learned pundits honored and respected him as one who had attained unto the
+goal of all effort--liberation, _mukti_, while to many persons throughout
+India to-day, and indeed throughout the whole world, he is looked upon as
+an incarnation of Krishna.
+
+It is related of Sri Ramakrishna that his yearning for Truth (his mother,
+he called it), was so great that he finally became unfit to conduct
+services in the temple, and retired to a little wood near by. Here he
+seemed to be lost in concentration upon the one thought, to such an extent
+that had it not been for devoted attendants, who actually put food into his
+mouth, the sage would have starved to death. He had so completely lost all
+thought of himself and his surroundings that he could not tell when the day
+dawned or when the night fell. So terrible was his yearning for the voice
+of Truth that when day after day passed and the light he longed for had not
+come to him he would weep in agony.
+
+Nor could any words or argument dissuade him from his purpose.
+
+He once said to Swami Vivekananda:
+
+"My son, suppose there is a bag of gold in yonder room, and a robber is in
+the next room. Do you think that robber can sleep? He cannot. His mind will
+be always thinking how he can enter that room and obtain possession of
+that gold. Do you think, then, that a man firmly persuaded that there is a
+reality behind all these appearances, that there is a God, that there is
+One who never dies, One who is Infinite Bliss, a bliss compared with which
+these pleasures of the senses are simply playthings,--can rest contented
+without struggling to attain it? No, he will become mad with longing."
+
+At length, after almost twelve years unceasing effort, and undivided
+purpose Sri Ramakrishna was rewarded with what has been described as "a
+torrent of spiritual light, deluging his mind and giving him peace."
+
+This wonderful insight he displayed in all the after years of his earthly
+mission, and he not only attained glimpses of the cosmic conscious state,
+but he also retained the Illumination, and the power to impart to a great
+degree, the realization of that state of being which he himself possessed.
+
+Like the Lord Buddha, this Indian sage also describes his experience as
+accompanied by "unbounded light." Speaking of this strange and overpowering
+sense of being immersed in light, Sri Ramakrishna described it thus: "The
+living light to which the earnest devotee is drawn doth not burn. It is
+like the light coming from a gem, shining yet soft, cool and soothing. It
+burneth not. It giveth peace and joy."
+
+This effect of great light, is an almost invariable accompaniment of
+supra-consciousness, although there are instances of undoubted cosmic
+consciousness in which the realization has been a more gradual growth,
+rather than a sudden influx, in which the phenomenon of _light_ is not
+greatly marked.
+
+Mohammed is said to have swooned with the "intolerable splendor" of the
+flood of white light which broke upon him, after many days of constant
+prayer and meditation, in the solitude of the cavern outside the gates of
+Mecca.
+
+Similar is the description of the attainment of cosmic consciousness, given
+by the Persian mystics, although it is evident that the Sufis regarded the
+result as reunion with "the other half" of the soul in exile.
+
+The burden of their cry is love, and "union with the beloved" is the
+longed-for goal of all earthly strife and experience.
+
+Whether this reunion be considered from the standpoint of finding the other
+half of the perfect one, as exemplified in the present-day search for the
+soul mate, or whether it be considered in the light of a spiritual merging
+into the One Eternal Absolute is the question of questions.
+
+Certainly the terms used to express this state of spiritual ecstacy are
+words which might readily be applied to lovers united in marriage.
+
+One thing is certain, the Sufis did not personify the Deity, except
+symbolically, and the "beloved one" is impartially referred to as masculine
+or feminine, even as modern thought has come to realize God as
+Father-Mother.
+
+In all mystical writings, we find the conclusion that there is no _one way_
+in which the seeker may find reunion with The Beloved.
+
+"The ways of God are as the number of the souls of men," declare the
+followers of Islam, and "for the love that thou wouldst find demands the
+sacrifice of self to the end that the heart may be filled with the passion
+to stand within the Holy of Holies, in which alone the mysteries of the
+True Beloved can be revealed unto thee," is also a Sufi sentiment, although
+it might also be Christian or Mohammedan, or Vedantan.
+
+Indeed, if the student of Esotericism, searches deeply enough, he will find
+a surprising unity of sentiment, and even of expression, in all the variety
+of religions and philosophies, including Christianity.
+
+It has been said that the chief difference between the message of Jesus
+and those of the holy men of other races, and times, lies in the fact that
+Jesus, more than his predecessors, emphasized the importance of love. But
+consider the following lines from Jami, the Persian mystic:
+
+  "Gaze, till gazing out of gazing
+  Grew to BEING HER I gazed on,
+  She and I no more, but in one
+  Undivided Being blended.
+  All that is not One must ever
+  Suffer with the wound of absence;
+  And whoever in Love's city
+  Enters, finds but room for one
+  And but in Oneness, union."
+
+These lines express that religious ecstacy which results from spiritual
+aspiration, or they express the union of the individual soul with its mate
+according to the viewpoint. In any event, they are an excellent description
+of the realization of that much-to-be-desired consciousness which is
+fittingly described in Occidental phraseology as "cosmic consciousness."
+Whether this realization is the result of union with the soul's "other
+half," or whether it is an impersonal reunion with the Causeless Cause, The
+Absolute, from which we are earth wanderers, is not the direct purpose of
+this volume to answer, although the question will be answered, and that
+soon.
+
+From whence and by whom we are not prepared to say, but the "signs and
+portents" which precede the solution of this problem have already made
+their appearance.
+
+Christian students of the Persian mystics, take exception to statements
+like the above, and regard them as "erotic," rather than spiritual.
+
+Mahmud Shabistari employs the following symbolism, but unquestionably seeks
+to express the same emotion:
+
+  "Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart,
+  Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
+  When you depart out, he will enter in,
+  In you, void of your_self_, will he display his beauty."
+
+The "Song of Solomon" is in a similar key, and whether the wise king
+referred to that state of _samadhi_ which accompanies certain experiences
+of cosmic consciousness, or whether he was reciting love-lyrics, must be a
+moot question.
+
+The personal note in the famous "song" has been accounted for by many
+commentators, on the grounds that Solomon had only partial glimpses of the
+supra-conscious state, and that, in other words, he frequently "backslid"
+from divine contemplation, and allowed his yearning for the state of
+liberation, to express itself in love of woman.
+
+An attribute of the possession of cosmic consciousness is wisdom, and this
+Solomon is said to have possessed far beyond his contemporaries, and to a
+degree incompatible with his years. It is said that he built and
+consecrated a "temple for the Lord," and that, as a result of his extreme
+piety and devotion to God, he was vouchsafed a vision of God.
+
+As these reports have come to us through many stages of church history and
+as Solomon lived many centuries before the birth of Jesus, it seems hardly
+fitting to ascribe the raptures of Solomon as typifying the love of the
+Church (the bride) for Christ (the bridegroom).
+
+Rather, it is easier to believe, the wisdom of the king argues a degree of
+consciousness far beyond that of the self-conscious man, and he rose to the
+quality of spiritual realization, expressing itself in a love and longing
+for that soul communion which may be construed as quite personal, referring
+to a personal, though doubtless non-corporeal union with his spiritual
+complement.
+
+Although the pronoun "he" is used, signifying that Solomon's longing was
+what theology terms "spiritual" and consequently impersonal, meaning God
+The Absolute, yet we suggest that the use of the masculine pronoun may be
+due entirely to the translators and commentators (of whom there have been
+many), and that, in their zeal to reconcile the song with the
+ecclesiastical ideas of spirituality, the gender of the pronoun has been
+changed. We submit that the idea is more than possible, and indeed in view
+of the avowed predilections of the ancient king and sage, it is highly
+probable.
+
+He sings:
+
+  "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth
+  For his love is better than wine."
+
+Again he cries:
+
+"Behold thou art fair my love, behold thou art fair, thou _hast dove's
+eyes_."
+
+The realization of _mukti_, i.e., the power of the _atman_ to transcend the
+physical, is thus expressed by Solomon, clearly indicating that he had
+found liberation:
+
+"My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'Rise up my love my fair one, and come
+away. For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone.
+
+"'The flowers appear upon the earth; the time of singing of birds has come,
+and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
+
+"'The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender
+grapes gives a goodly smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.'"
+
+It is assumed that these lines do not refer to a personal hegira, but
+rather to the act of withdrawing the Self from the things of the outer
+life, and fixing it in contemplation upon the larger life, the
+supra-conscious life, but there is no reason to doubt that they may refer
+to a longing to commune with the beautiful and tender things of nature.
+
+Another point to be noted is that in the spring and early summer it is with
+difficulty that the mind can be made to remain fixed upon the petty details
+of everyday business life. The awakening of the earth from the long cold
+sleep of winter is typical of the awakening of the mind from its hypnotisms
+of external consciousness.
+
+Instinctively, there arises a realization of the divinity of creative
+activity, and the mind soars up to the higher vibrations and awakes to the
+real purpose of life, more or less fully, according to individual
+development.
+
+This has given rise to the assumption, predicated by some writers on cosmic
+consciousness, that this state of consciousness is attained in the early
+summer months, and the instances cited would seem to corroborate this
+assumption.
+
+But, as a poet has sung, "it is always summer in the soul," so there is no
+specific time, nor age, in which individual cosmic consciousness may be
+attained.
+
+A point which we suggest, and which is verified by the apparent connection
+between the spring months, and the full realization of cosmic
+consciousness, is the point that this phenomenon comes through
+contemplation and desire for love. Whether this love be expressed as the
+awakening of creative life, as in nature's springtime, or whether it be
+expressed as love of the lover for his bride; the dove for his mate; the
+mother for her child, or as the religious devotee for the Lord, the key
+that unlocks the door to illumination of body, soul and spirit, is Love,
+"the maker, the monarch and savior of all," but whether this love in its
+fullness of perfection may be found in that perfect spiritual mating, which
+we see exemplified in the tender, but ardent mating of the dove (the symbol
+of Purity and Peace), or whether it means spiritual union with the Absolute
+is not conclusive.
+
+The mystery of Seraphita, Balzac's wonderful creation, is an evidence that
+Balzac had glimpses of that perfect union, which gives rise to the
+experience called cosmic consciousness.
+
+It is well to remember that in every instance of cosmic consciousness, the
+person experiencing this state, finds it practically impossible to fully
+describe the state, or its exact significance.
+
+Therefore, when these efforts have been made, we must expect to find the
+description colored very materially by the habit of _thought_, of the
+person having the experience.
+
+Balzac was essentially religious, but he was also extremely suggestible,
+and, until very recently, Theology and Religion were supposed to be
+synonymous, or at least to walk hand in hand. Balzac's early training and
+his environment, as well as the thought of the times in which he lived,
+were calculated to inspire in him the fallacious belief that God would have
+us renounce the love of our fellow beings, for love of Him.
+
+Balzac makes "Louis Lambert" renounce his great passion for Pauline, and
+seems to suggest that this renunciation led to the subsequent realization
+of cosmic consciousness, which he unquestionably experienced.
+
+Nor is it possible to say that it did not, since renunciation of the lower
+must inevitably lead to the higher, and we give up the lesser only that we
+may enjoy the greater.
+
+In "Seraphita" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that
+spiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result
+of a perfect and complete "mating," between the sexes, on the spiritual
+plane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also
+elsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or
+God.
+
+The former view is individual, while the latter is impersonal, and may, or
+may not, involve absorption of individual consciousness.
+
+In subsequent chapters we shall again refer to Balzac's Illumination as
+expressed in his writings, and will now take up the question of man's
+relation to the universe, as it appears in the light of cosmic
+consciousness, or liberation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN
+
+
+The riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower
+part animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the
+growth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal),
+consciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman's head and
+breast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.
+
+No higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the
+concept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a
+symbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and
+sometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.
+
+The point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or
+more unescapable than that of man's growth from sin (limitations) to
+god-hood--freedom.
+
+Whether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of
+upward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether
+it is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man's fall from godhood to
+sin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by
+perfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the
+animal stage of consciousness.
+
+Artists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual
+things, must still use the human idea for a model--refined, spiritualized,
+supra-human, but still man.
+
+It is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of
+growth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with
+equal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals
+called a nation; and to worlds, or planets.
+
+The evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through
+the various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he
+has established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which
+is called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.
+
+A Japanese term is _Dai Zikaku_. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say
+_Daigo Tettei_, and one who has attained to this superior phase of
+consciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally "above man."
+
+Emerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The
+Oversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the
+term Universal Energy.
+
+Emerson was a seer; Spencer was a scientist, which word, until recently,
+was a synonym for materialist.
+
+But what are words?
+
+Mere symbols of consciousness, and subject to change and evolvement, as
+man's consciousness evolves. The student of truth will recognize in these
+different words, exactly the same meaning. The "eternal energy from which
+all things proceed" is a phrase identical with "The Oversoul," or "The
+Absolute," from which all manifestation comes.
+
+Man's evolution, then, is an evolution in consciousness, from the
+subjective _awareness_ of the monad to a realization of the entire cosmos.
+
+Each phase of life is a specific degree of consciousness and each
+successive degree brings the individual nearer to the realization of the
+_sum_ of all degrees of consciousness, into godhood--the highest degree
+which we can conceive.
+
+Such, briefly, is a statement of that phenomenon which is attracting the
+attention of occidental students of psychology, and which has been
+fittingly termed "the attainment of cosmic consciousness."
+
+The phrase expresses a degree of consciousness which includes the entire
+cosmos--not only this planet called earth, and everything thereon, but also
+the spheres of the Constellation.
+
+Not that this degree of consciousness carries with it the power to express
+in words, that which it is. In fact, the one who has had this marvelous
+awakening, cannot adequately describe, or even _retain_, a full
+comprehension of what it signifies.
+
+All-inclusive knowledge would indeed, preclude the possibility of
+expression. Therefore, even if it were possible to retain in the finite
+mind, the full realization of cosmic consciousness, words could not be
+found in which to express it to others.
+
+Thought is the creator of words, but thought is but the material which the
+mind employs, and cosmic consciousness transcends the mind, engulfs the
+soul, and reaches to the trackless areas of Spirit.
+
+It may be doubted if any one may retain a full realization of cosmic
+consciousness, and remain in the physical body.
+
+Great and wonderful as have been the experiences of those who have sought
+to relate their sensations, it is probable that these flashes of insight
+have been in the nature of cosmic _perception_, and have lacked full
+realization.
+
+Of those who have had glimpses of that larger area of consciousness which
+includes an awareness of eternal unity with the cosmos, there are, we
+believe, many more than students of the subject have any idea of.
+
+This century marks a distinct epoch in what is called evolution.
+
+The end of a _kalpa_, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the
+presence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.
+
+By their very presence these enlightened ones arouse in all who are ready
+for the experience a glimpse of that state of being to which all souls are
+destined, and to which all shall ultimately attain.
+
+A time when "gods shall walk the earth" is a prophecy which all nations
+have heard and looked forward to.
+
+That time is now. We see the effect of their presence in Peace Conferences;
+in abolition of child labor; in prison reform; in the amalgamation of the
+races; in attempts at social equality; in National Eugenic Societies, and
+above all, as we have before stated, in the Emancipation of Woman. In fact,
+it is seen in all the various ways in which the higher consciousness finds
+expression.
+
+One of the characteristic signs of this awakening, the Millenium Dawn, as
+it has been named, lies in a very general optimism shining through the
+mists of doubt and unrest and inexpressible desire, which accompany the
+new birth in consciousness.
+
+Amid the seeming chaos of present day conditions is it not easy to discern
+the coming of that dawn of which all great ones of earth have foretold--a
+time when "the earth shall be made a fit habitation for the gods"?
+
+"The heavens" is a term employed to specify the Constellation which is
+composed of planets and stars, but we use the term "Heaven" also to mean a
+state of happiness and bliss attainable through certain methods, a
+consideration of which we will take up later.
+
+The immediate point is that this planet is being prepared for a position in
+the solar system consistent with that which is the abode of the
+gods--Heaven.
+
+This proposition is made in its literal meaning. Corroborative of this
+statement, which is consistent with all prophecies, is the information
+recently given to the world, by Camille Flammarion, and other great
+astronomers, that "the earth is changing its position in the heavens at an
+astonishing rate." The idea that "there shall be no night there," is
+foreshadowed by the estimate that this change will give to the earth a
+perpetual and uniform light, and heat.
+
+The New Thought preachment of physical immortality is but a faint and
+imperfect perception of this time, when "there shall be no death," because
+the animal man, subject to change, shall give place to the changeless,
+deathless, spiritual man; not through cataclysms, and destruction, but
+through the natural birth into a higher consciousness.
+
+The Occidental mind is easily affrighted by a name. Perhaps we should not
+specify the Occidental mind, but rather the mind of man among all races is
+easily put to sleep by the hypnotism of a word.
+
+The word Pantheism is a bugaboo to the Occidentalist. He fears the
+destruction of the Monistic faith, if he admits that man is in essence a
+god, and that therefore there are many gods in the one God, even as there
+are many members to the one physical organism.
+
+Nevertheless all literature, whether sacred or profane, teaches the
+attainment of godhood by Man. This can not mean other than the attainment
+of _realization_ of godhood, by the individual and the _retention_ of this
+realization to the end that reincarnation shall cease and identity with the
+cosmic, principle, be established, beyond further loss, or doubt, or
+strife, or death.
+
+This is what it means to attain to cosmic consciousness. It is inclusive
+consciousness. It is not absorption into the vast unknown, in the sense of
+annihilation of identity. It is consciousness _plus_, not minus.
+
+An ancient writing says:
+
+"And thou shalt awake as from a long dream. Thou shalt be like the perfume
+arising from the flower in which it has been so long enclosed. And thou
+wilt float above the opened flower. And thou wilt say 'There is time before
+me in eternity.'"
+
+There is nothing in the testimony of those who have described, as best they
+could, their emotions upon attainment of this consciousness, which would
+argue the absorption of the individual soul into The Absolute.
+
+There is no testimony to argue that the attainment of cosmic consciousness,
+carries with it anything approaching annihilation of _sentiency_.
+
+Rather it would seem to testify to an acceleration of all the higher
+faculties.
+
+That this would be a more apt interpretation may be seen by comparing the
+different reports of those experiencing the phenomenon of Illumination.
+
+Nevertheless there has been much controversy regarding the meaning of the
+terms nirvana; samadhi; dai zikaku, etc.--words expressing the condition
+which we are considering under the phrase cosmic consciousness.
+
+
+WHAT IS NIRVANA?
+
+Let us consider briefly, what is meant by Nirvana, and see if it is not
+highly probable that the word describes the state of consciousness which
+we are considering, referring later on to the question, and its
+interpretation by the various schools of religion and philosophy.
+
+It is apparent that the most learned sages of the Orient fail to agree as
+to the exact meaning of Nirvana. Occidental writers and leaders of the
+Theosophical philosophy, differ somewhat as to its import, but at the same
+time we find enough unity on this point to make it evident that the state
+of Nirvana is a desirable attainment--the goal of the religious enthusiast.
+
+Going back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded
+religion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally "the way of the
+gods," meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the
+path that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented
+by godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to _know_, much less to
+express?
+
+Since we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the
+attainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we
+know of merely _human_ nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss
+of identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as
+_absorption_. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism
+and Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous,
+and comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of
+consciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe,
+is identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.
+
+The very fact that external life represents so universal a struggle for
+attainment of this state of being, or higher consciousness, indicates at
+least, even if it does not actually _guarantee_ a fuller, deeper, more
+complete state of consciousness than hitherto enjoyed, rather than an
+absorption or annihilation of any of that dearly bought consciousness which
+distinguishes the self from its environment, and which says with conviction
+"I am."
+
+It is admitted that those who have experienced liberation, illumination,
+_mukti_, have reported their sensations with such relative vagueness and
+with such apparent variance of conclusion as regards the _meaning_ of the
+experience that the reader is left to his own interpretation of the
+character of that state of being, other than a general uniformity of
+description.
+
+Referring to the pleasure which the lower nature feels under certain
+conditions, the late Swami Vivekananda says:
+
+"The whole idea of this nature is to make the soul know that it is entirely
+separate from nature and when the soul knows this, nature has no more
+attraction for it. But the whole of nature vanishes only for that man who
+has become free. There will always remain an infinite number of others for
+whom nature will go on working."
+
+But did Vivekananda employ the phrase "nature has no more attraction for
+him," to describe the sensation of unappreciativeness of the wonders of the
+natural world? We think not. Rather the gentle-hearted sage meant to report
+the fact that the soul is no longer _held in bondage_ to the external
+world, when it has once attained supra-consciousness.
+
+If this expression referred to the pleasure the true lover of nature feels
+in the out-of-doors, he might well say "I trust that I shall never attain
+to that state of consciousness. Or if attainment be compulsory, then shall
+I prolong the time of accomplishment as long as possible."
+
+And who would blame him? Why should we strive for the attainment of a state
+of being described so unattractively as to give us the impression of entire
+_loss_ of so enjoyable and unselfish a sensation as love of nature?
+
+The Vedantic idea, according to interpreted translations is that out of The
+Absolute, the All (Om), we _come_, and therefore back to it we go, being
+now in our present state of consciousness, en route, as it were to return.
+
+But returning to _what_? That is the unanswerable problem of all religions;
+all philosophies; all science. If we _return_ to a void, such as some
+interpreters of the Vedas declare, then surely this urge within mankind
+toward this annihilatory state would hardly be expected. It would be
+inconsistent with that instinct of self-preservation which we are told is
+the first law of nature.
+
+Compared to this Vedantic concept of the Absolute, the Christian's simple,
+and very empirical ideal of eternal happiness is preferable.
+
+To walk streets paved with gold and play a harp incessantly while chanting
+doleful praises to a Deity who ought to become wearied of the never-ceasing
+adulation, would still be a more desirable goal of our strife, than that so
+inaccurately and unattractively described by many students of Oriental
+religions and philosophies as the state _nirvana_, or _samadhi_.
+
+Again quoting from Vivekananda's Raja Yoga:
+
+"There are not wanting persons who think that this manifest state (our
+present existence) is the highest state of man. Thinkers of great caliber
+are of the opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated
+Being, and this differentiated state is _higher than the Absolute_."
+
+Although as Vivekananda says there are thinkers who make this claim, the
+idea does not find ready acceptance among theologians, either Eastern, or
+Western. Neither do philosophers, as a general thing incline to adopt this
+view. The reason for this general disinclination is not difficult of
+discovery. It is due to the present state of man on this planet.
+
+If man, as we see and know mankind, is the highest state of Being (not
+merely of manifestation, but of Being) "then," they say, "we have nothing
+to hope for."
+
+But have we not? May we not hope that man will _manifest_, on this planet a
+fuller realization, of that which he _is_ in _Being_, and that, far from
+dissolving what consciousness he has, he will but _plus_ this consciousness
+by a larger--an all-embracing consciousness that shall make earth a fit
+habitation for god-like men?
+
+In Vivekananda's Raja Yoga we find the following:
+
+"There was an old solution that man, after death, remained the same; that
+all his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever. Logically
+stated, this means that man's goal is the world; this world meaning earth
+carried to a state higher and with elimination of its evils is the state
+they call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is absurd and puerile
+because it cannot be. There cannot be good without evil, or evil without
+good. To live in a world where there is all good and no evil, is what
+Sanskrit logicians call a 'dream in the air.'"
+
+It is not necessary to argue here that there is no such thing as positive
+evil.
+
+St. Paul said: "I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean of itself;
+save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is
+unclean."
+
+And again we are assured that "there is nothing good or bad, but thinking
+makes it so;" which means that evil has no more foundation in reality than
+has thought, and thought is ever-changing; transitory. Evil therefore may
+be entirely eliminated by thought, since it is created by thought.
+
+That there is a condition of mankind which has been alluded to as "evil" is
+self-evident. The term has been employed to describe a condition of either
+an individual, or a society, or a nation or a race, wherein there is in
+harmony; disease; unhappiness. Anything that makes for suffering on any
+plane of consciousness, may be termed "evil" as here used.
+
+Let us consider for a moment if it be illogical to imagine a world in which
+this in harmony has been eliminated. Imagine a family in which all the
+members radiate love and unselfish consideration. Add to this, or we may
+say complementary to this, we have perfect health and prosperity; and over
+and above all we have a conviction of immortality, eliminating doubt and
+fear and worry as to future sorrows or partings, with no knowledge that
+there are others in the world suffering.
+
+Do we not find it quite possible, to say the least, and even desirable, to
+live in such a family, particularly if we had previously acquired a
+knowledge of that which is evil and that which is good--merely terms used
+to describe limited, or enlarged consciousness.
+
+If we admit the desirability of living in such a family, why not in such a
+world? "Logically stated," says the Hindu swami, "this means that man's
+goal is this world (earth planet); carried to a state higher and with the
+elimination of its evils, this world is the state (place) they call
+heaven."
+
+Again we must question. Why not?
+
+This planet we call earth, is a great and marvelous work, whether it be the
+work of an abstract God, or whether it be the work of the god in Man.
+
+And whether this earth be the gift of an abstract God, or whether it be
+the generating bed of the life now upon it, the fact remains that we have
+no business to despise the gift, or the work of self-generation. Our
+business is to enhance its beauties and eliminate its ugliness. Why have we
+prayed that the will of God which is Love, "be done on earth as it is in
+the heavens," if we despise the planet and hope to leave it?
+
+Although the general impression given in all religious systems is that
+the perfected soul leaves this earth, yet there is nothing in any of them
+to prove that it does so, or if it has hitherto, that it shall continue so
+to do. We have no right to assume that the outer life--the external,
+manifested life which we perceive with our physical senses, is all there is
+to this earth and that when we leave this outer life, we go to some other
+_place_. The _invisible_ life on this planet is unquestionably far greater
+than the _visible_ but both visible and invisible doubtless belong to the
+planet earth.
+
+The Absolute, presumably occupies all space, and therefore it may as
+reasonably be postulated that this state of Nirvana or Samadhi, may be
+entered within the area of this planet's vibrations, as in that of the
+other planets. The finite mind cannot conceive of a state of being apart
+from motion, space or time, even though these concepts are crude in their
+relation to the state of consciousness to which the sum of all
+consciousness is tending, whether the individual would, or not.
+
+We speak of "the heavens" when we refer to the immeasurable, and little
+known region of the solar system, and we use the same term when we refer to
+a state of being in which the perfected soul of man will finally enter. And
+this term implies that when we are thus in heaven, we are _with_ God, if
+not _absorbed into_ God.
+
+Jesus, the master, taught the coming of the kingdom of God _on earth_ and
+urged mankind to _pray_ for its coming, asking that the will of God
+(or gods) be done on earth as it is in the heavens, from which it is not
+illogical to infer that the earth itself, as a planet, is not outside the
+pale of that blissful state which we ascribe to God, and which, at the same
+time, we expect to enter without being swallowed up in the sense that we
+lose that consciousness which cognizes itself as an eternal verity.
+
+If then, the "heavens" as applied to the planets revolving above the earth
+in the solar system, and "Heaven" as a term used to describe a state of
+happiness, bliss, samadhi, nirvana, or "life with God," be synonymous it
+may reasonably be inferred that in the solar system are planets upon which
+live sentient beings, in a state to which we on earth, are seeking to
+attain; a state wherein so-called evil has been eliminated and the good
+retained.
+
+In fact, we may see with none too prophetic eyes the elimination of evil
+right here in the visible. All who have attained a glimpse of Illumination
+have reported the loss of the "sense of sin and death," and have retained
+this feeling of security and "all-is-well-ness" as long as they have lived
+thereafter.
+
+From the old conception of "evil" as a positive, opposing and independent
+force, modern thought, in all its branches, namely science; religion;
+social evolution, and philosophy, has arrived at the conclusion that evil
+is not a power or force in and of itself, but that it is evidence of a
+limited degree of consciousness which sees only one side of a subject--only
+a limited area of an infinitely wide and varied manifestation of the one
+supreme consciousness. Therefore, it is, that evil per se, does not exist
+as power, but that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.
+
+The cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in
+an extension of individual consciousness.
+
+That this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind
+expands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact
+with each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more
+general. Almost every one readily admits that the world is "growing
+better," as they express it.
+
+This means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened,
+deepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that
+the happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one
+human life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (_mukti_, which
+can mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the
+many paths of selflessness.
+
+Up through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness
+toward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the
+Illumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present
+state; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path,
+and to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record
+the fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the
+future of this earth.
+
+But who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of
+consciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?
+
+The planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of
+astronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term
+"morality" in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth
+itself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.
+
+In this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all
+over the earth's surface; and with the cessation of war, and of
+competition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes
+will cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book,
+to a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come
+a realization of the _nothingness_ of sin and consequent suffering.
+
+The trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of
+consciousness of earth's inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the
+suffering which afflicts human life.
+
+Those who have attained to the state of cosmic consciousness in both
+Occidental and Oriental instances of this perception, have reported an
+abiding sense of rest and peace and satisfaction--a condition which we
+associate with accepted ideals of heaven as taught in Occidental creeds
+and among some schools of Oriental philosophers, and sects of religious
+worship.
+
+There is a far greater unity of idea between the Oriental and the
+Occidental methods and systems, as to the _goal_ of ultimate attainment
+than is generally believed, or understood.
+
+The highest expression of Japanese Buddhism differs from Hindu Buddhism and
+from Vedanta, and the many other forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, in
+the same way that the Japanese, as a nation, differ from their Hindu
+brothers.
+
+The Japanese emphasize, more than do the Hindus, the preservation of the
+nation, and to this end, they are called more "practical" minded, but with
+the Japanese, as with all the Orientals, we find an intense contempt for
+any one who would seek to preserve his physical existence, or hesitate at
+any personal sacrifice.
+
+This unwritten code has its origin, as have all Oriental traditions and
+concepts, in the teachings of religious systems. According to Oriental
+ethics, the person is very low in the scale of consciousness, when he
+considers his physical body as of comparative consequence, when the
+question of expediency, or of the welfare of his country, is in the
+balance.
+
+Nevertheless, Japan has offered, far more than has India, a fertile field
+for the growth of materialism, owing to the fact that underlying the
+apparent observance of and loyalty to, religious practices, the Japanese
+temperament inclines to a practical application of the wisdom attained
+through religious instruction.
+
+Therefore we find among the Illumined Ones of Japanese history, sages who
+taught the attainment of liberation through paths which are not generally
+accepted by interpreters of Hinduism.
+
+For example, among the orthodox Sintoists, (the original religion of the
+Japanese, before the advent of Buddhism), we find that cleanliness of mind
+and body, was taught as the prime essential to attainment of unity with
+_Kami_, rather than contemplation, meditation and isolation, as with the
+Hindus.
+
+And in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase
+"cleanliness is next to godliness."
+
+Simple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the
+situation, inasmuch as we are assured that "blessed are the pure in heart
+for they shall see God."
+
+Again Jesus told his hearers that they "must become as little children,"
+evidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind
+of a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife;
+death (repeated incarnation); and all so-called "evil."
+
+To this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion;
+by worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by
+aspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.
+
+What, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?
+
+Before taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of
+human life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of
+consciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human
+devotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few
+instances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+
+Consciousness may be termed, simply, "the divine spark," which enters into
+every form and phase of manifested life emanating from that one Eternal
+Power which materialists designate as "energy" and which Occultists, both
+Oriental and Occidental, best define as "Aum," God! The Absolute--The
+Divine Mind, and many other terms.
+
+Consciousness, therefore, enters into everything--is the life essence of
+everything.
+
+The materialistic hypothesis formerly predicated the axiom that there were
+two distinct phases of manifestation, namely organic and inorganic.
+
+Organic life was sentient, or conscious, while inorganic life was
+insensate--a structure acted upon from forces outside itself, and dependent
+upon an exterior force for its action.
+
+Other names for this differentiation, would be "matter" and "spirit." The
+point is, that the old materialistic philosophy failed to recognize the
+fact that consciousness, in varying degrees, characterizes all manifested
+life.
+
+This fact every phase of Oriental philosophy recognized, and always has
+recognized. The assumption of the Christian Science devotee, that there is
+anything new in the postulate that "all is spirit," is possible only
+because of his ignorance of Oriental philosophy, as will be seen later on
+in these pages, when we take up the relative comparison between the
+Oriental and the Occidental systems of "salvation."
+
+To resume therefore, we postulate the following recognized axioms of
+Universal Occultism.
+
+All life is sentient or conscious.
+
+All life is from the one source, and therefore contains this "divine
+spark."
+
+All manifestation expresses degrees or phases of consciousness.
+
+The degree of this consciousness fixes the status of the organism, and
+determines its classification, whether it is organic or inorganic; simple,
+or complex.
+
+Every cell, each separate cell, in fact, has its own consciousness--that is
+each cell is a center of this power that we term consciousness; a group of
+cells with this power focalized to a given point, or center, makes an organ
+of consciousness, and so on up the scale through many many degrees of
+complexity of organism, until we come to man.
+
+Webster defines consciousness as "the ability to know ones mental
+operations." But, we do not take this definition in Occultism, for the
+obvious reason, that it is not possible to state arbitrarily whether or
+not, the cell "knows its operations," and since all operations are
+necessarily mental in the final analysis, we assume that there is a phase
+of consciousness below that of cognition of "self," which may be termed
+"the unconscious consciousness," which again is synonymous with the phrase
+"automatic cerebration."
+
+Coming up through the various myriad degrees of sub-conscious life (sub
+being here used as below self consciousness) we arrive at the stage of
+simple consciousness which characterizes the animal kingdom, remembering
+that consciousness in the abstract is not a _condition_, or state of
+environment. It is one of the eternal verities. It _is_ just as Aum _is_.
+
+The attainment of a wider and wider area of consciousness, is but the
+_uncovering_, or the attracting to a central point or to an individual
+organism of _this that is_. Thus consciousness, in the abstract, may say
+of itself "before creation was, I am."
+
+That is what is meant when it is said that God is omnipotent, and
+omniscient.
+
+The difference between mere power, or energy, and consciousness, whether
+considered from the standpoint of the organic or the inorganic kingdom, may
+be likened to the difference between a blind force, and a power that knows
+itself.
+
+Consciousness is practically the great central light that "lighteth every
+man that cometh into the world." Without consciousness, manifestation would
+be darkness. Thus it is said, "the light shineth in darkness and the
+darkness comprehendeth it not." This applies to that tiny spark of divinity
+in which consciousness exists but where there is not realization of its
+divinity.
+
+This fact is not applicable to the inorganic, or the animal kingdoms alone.
+Many men are not conscious of the light that shineth within them, save as
+there is an aggregate of cell consciousness which recognizes its focalized
+power as an organism.
+
+Manifestation then, is the vehicle (carrying character) of universal
+consciousness, and we may logically assume that manifestation is due to
+the necessity of developing individualized entities, who may, through
+successive phases of conscious unfoldment, or uncovering of areas of
+Being, become gods.
+
+The western writers, and indeed, many Oriental seers prefer to put it thus:
+"become fit to dwell with God, in eternal bliss and power."
+
+To dwell with God, must be to become gods. Once more, we must remember that
+only gods are immortal. Souls continue to exist after the physical body has
+been discarded, for the reason that no body in these days, lives as long as
+its psychic counterpart or dweller. But, although the soul continues to
+exist on another plane of note of the _scale of vibration_, it does not
+argue that the identity shall continue eternally, except in such instances,
+as when the soul through numbers of incarnations shall have finally
+accomplished the purpose of its pilgrimage and attained to _mukti_
+(liberation from the law of change and death).
+
+Returning to a consideration of what may be said to constitute certain
+specific phases of consciousness, we will take into consideration the
+phase of consciousness, which we see expressed in the mineral kingdom.
+That there is a distinct and separate character of consciousness thus
+expressed is evident from the fact that there is a law of chemical
+affinity, i.e. attraction and repulsion, which causes different minerals
+to respond, or to refuse to respond, as the case may be, to certain
+conditions or chemical processes, more or less crude in character.
+
+From this to the vegetable kingdom we assume a step in advance, as
+vegetable life measured by complexity and refinement, responds with a
+greater degree of sensitiveness to the laws of evolution, as expressed in
+cultivation, selection and environment.
+
+Even in this phase of manifestation, we find the law of Being, is measured
+by the perfection of species. Evolution of inorganic life, is as real, and
+as much a part of the plan, (or whatever name we choose), as is organic,
+and self-conscious life.
+
+That which is less perfect, measured by the law of beauty and usefulness,
+we find gradually being exterminated. That the earth, as a planet, is
+obeying this cosmic law of evolution from grossness to refinement; from
+crudity to perfection; from the limited to the all-inclusive, is
+indisputable. As the motor power of electricity has become general, we find
+that beasts of burden are fast disappearing from the earth, according to
+the law of the "survival of the fittest," this law, always being subject to
+change. The "fittest" means that which is best fitted to the conditions of
+the time.
+
+Brute force survives among brutes, in the degree that it is strong or weak;
+coming out of that expression of law into the mental areas of
+consciousness, we find that the _mentally_ fit survive among those who live
+only in the areas of the mind; so on, into the spiritual, we will find the
+"survival of the fittest" will be those who are best fitted for spiritual
+eternity--for godhood.
+
+Coming again, to our consideration of the term consciousness, we will take
+a brief survey of that phase of consciousness which we see manifested in
+the forms of life that have the power to move from their immediate
+environment; such for instance would include the fish in the sea; insect
+life; reptiles; the birds in the air; and all forms of animal life.
+
+While expressing a very limited degree of consciousness, yet there is
+evident a certain degree or aggregate of cell consciousness, which
+transcends that of the mineral and vegetable life. This apparently
+_advanced_ degree of consciousness, does not, as we have stated, presuppose
+a nearer approach to immortality, however, for the reason that we apply
+the law of the survival of the fittest to all manifestation, and that
+which is best fitted for certain stages of the planet's life during the
+process of evolvement, may be most unfitted for succeeding stages, and
+will, by the inexorable law of survival, be discontinued--discarded, even
+as the properties and stage-settings of a drama are thrown aside, when the
+play has been "taken off the boards."
+
+It is admitted, therefore, that those forms of life having the power of
+locomotion, involve a more complex degree of consciousness, than does that
+of the mineral or vegetable.
+
+In that phase of life that we see possessing the power to move, to change
+its immediate environment, even though not capable of changing its
+_habitat_ we may perceive the beginning of that consciousness expressed as
+"free-will." Here, we assume, the organism recognizes its self as distinct
+from its environment, and from its counterparts, etc., but this recognition
+has not sufficient consciousness to _assert_ that recognition, and so we
+say that there is no _self_-consciousness. There is what occultists have
+agreed to call simple consciousness, but this does not include a
+realization of identity, as apart from environment. This may be better
+understood if we separate these degrees or phases of consciousness into
+groups, applicable to the human organism, leaving, for a time the
+consideration of whether or not some human specimens are higher in the
+scales than are some animals.
+
+Physical, or sense consciousness, is shared alike by man and the animals.
+
+Beyond this phase of consciousness we may classify the human species in the
+following terms:
+
+Physical self-consciousness.
+
+Mental self-consciousness.
+
+Soul (individual) "I" consciousness.
+
+Spiritual self-consciousness.
+
+Physical self-consciousness is that phase of self-recognition which knows
+itself as a body distinct from its neighbors; from its natural environment.
+This awareness of the self it is that actuated pre-historic man when he
+manifested the blind force that is sometimes called "self-preservation,"
+which force has erroneously been termed "the first law of nature."
+
+Preservation of this physical self is the most "primitive" law of nature,
+but not "first" in the sense that it is the most important, or the
+strongest.
+
+The world's long list of heroes refutes this idea. The pre-historic species
+of human, then, in common with his brother, the animal, sought to preserve
+this physical self, because he felt that this physical self, his body, was
+all there was of him, and he wished to preserve it, even as the _wise_ man
+of to-day, sacrifices everything to the preservation of the moral and
+spiritual Self which he realizes is the _real_ of him.
+
+To this end, he cultivated physical force, sufficient to overcome his
+environment; and as he developed a little of that consciousness which we
+term mental (using the term merely as a part of the physical organism
+called the brain), he realized that co-operation would greatly enhance his
+chances for self-preservation, and therefore, this mental consciousness
+impelled him to annex to his forces other physical organisms so that their
+united strength might preserve each other.
+
+This side of the story of man's evolution in consciousness is not however a
+part of our present work, and we will therefore leave it, for a brief
+consideration of the successive steps in attainment of consciousness,
+leading through devious paths, and through millions of relative time called
+years, into the present state of man's consciousness which in so many
+instances presages the oncoming of that state, called liberation, or
+illumination--mukti.
+
+Through mental self-consciousness the way has been long and arduous. There
+are many, many degrees of this phase of consciousness, and to this phase we
+owe what is called our present civilization.
+
+The true occultist, whether viewing manifestation from the standpoint of
+Oriental or of Occidental ideals, realizes that everything is right which
+makes for human betterment, and that _dharma_ (right-action) consists in
+acting in accordance with the highest motive of which one's consciousness
+is capable.
+
+That our present civilization is most _uncivilized_ in many respects, will
+be admitted by all whose range of consciousness has touched in any degree,
+the infinite areas of wisdom expressed in altruistic action.
+
+But, though the path be long, and thorny, the cycle is closing, and many
+have reached the goal through its zigzag course.
+
+But, underlying, as it were, and upholding and uplifting the expression of
+sense consciousness in which so many persons seem lost to-day, there are
+evidences of a consciousness which _observes the effects_, of this
+tremendous mental activity, and knows itself as something apart from, and
+superior to this manifestation.
+
+This, we define as soul--individualized expression of the spiritual
+consciousness--the central light, which as we previously quoted, "lighteth
+every man that cometh into the world."
+
+Many there are who merely _perceive_ this. To them there is a vague and
+indefinable _something_ which seems to realize that the operations of the
+mind are something phenomenal and apart from the _real_ Self. Psychology,
+even so empirical a psychology as is possible of demonstration in western
+schools and colleges, evidences the fact that there is a far greater field
+of mental operation than is covered by the outer, or _mental_
+consciousness.
+
+The outer, or objective action of the mind, considers but one subject, one
+question, one problem at a time. Many varied _phases_ of this problem may
+present themselves, but the mental forces are focalized upon one subject at
+a time. And yet to state that but one idea, thought-concept, or desire, can
+enter the mind at a time, is not a safe assumption.
+
+After many centuries of material strife, with the object of satisfying the
+demands of human life, the conviction is forcing itself upon people in all
+walks of life, that wealth, ambition, power and possessions, do not give us
+the answer to the eternal unescapable and insistent question of the way to
+happiness.
+
+This means that there is awakening in the human race more generally than at
+any other time in recorded history, a realization that the human organism
+is not merely a physical aggregate of cells, nor yet that it is mind
+individualized and in operation for the purpose of exercising new powers.
+The fact is becoming apparent that all discovery is but an uncovering of
+those vast areas of consciousness which are limitless; and which include
+not only all life on this planet, but all life in the Cosmos. In short,
+cosmic consciousness is becoming _perceived_, by a vast majority, and is
+being _realized_ by not a few.
+
+But in the immediate future of the race, we find the next step, for the
+majority to be that of soul-consciousness.
+
+Back of thought, like a guardian angel stands the desire of the soul,
+stimulating and directing; back of action stands thought, as the master
+directs the servant, or as the captain decides the course of the ship.
+
+Spiritual evolution may be understood, or at least _perceived_, from a
+study of physical and mental evolution. From the crude to the perfect is
+the law; if this perfection of species, or of phases, could be attained
+without pain, it were well. Pain comes from lack of wisdom to realize that
+out of the lower the higher inevitably springs, as the butterfly springs
+from the cocoon; as the flower springs from the seed; "as above so below"
+is a translation of an old Sinto saying, which also bids us "trust in Kami
+and keep clean."
+
+Again it is said "to him who overcometh, will I give the inheritance."
+_Overcoming_ may be variously interpreted. In the past, it has been
+presented to the initiate, as sacrifice. If so it be, then is it because of
+lack of that wisdom which knows that there is no sacrifice in exchanging
+the physical for the spiritual--the ephemeral for the abiding.
+
+Says the ancient manuscripts:
+
+"The body is purified by water, the mind by truth, the soul by knowledge
+and austerity, the reason by wisdom."
+
+But as the groping, undeveloped soul struggles for consciousness, it
+reaches out for the gratification of mental desires. The soul is moved by
+desire for perfect happiness. The mind seeks to satisfy this craving for
+happiness in increased activities; in accumulation; in so-called pleasure,
+i.e. always looking outside--thinking outside, living in the outside--the
+_maya_. But the soul has but one answer to this quest for happiness. It is
+love, because only love and wisdom give immortality--which is
+self-preservation in the true sense.
+
+It is written in the Shruti: "Brahman is wisdom and bliss."
+
+No higher text can be given the disciple.
+
+Wisdom comes from reflection upon the results of Experience, in the search
+for happiness.
+
+When the mind has sounded the depths of its resources, and the urge forward
+can not be appeased, when the voice of the inner self--the soul, cannot be
+silenced; the disciple pauses to ask _the way_. He wants to know what it is
+all about, and why it is that all he has so striven and struggled for fails
+to satisfy. He wants to know how to avoid pain; and how to find the most
+direct road to that satisfaction which endures; and which is not synonymous
+with the so-called "pleasures" of the senses.
+
+When this stage of development has been reached, the disciple is ready for
+another phase of Experience which shall extend his consciousness into
+those areas of knowledge, in which the Real is distinguishable from the
+Illusory.
+
+Experience will then teach him that only Love is real.
+
+That which is for the permanent good of all, as opposed to that which is
+transitory and only seemingly satisfying to the few, may be said to
+constitute the perception of the Real, and the avoidance of Illusion.
+
+To exchange a present seeming advantage to the physical environment, for a
+future and permanent satisfaction of the soul is the prerogative of the
+wise--the soul that has discovered itself and its mission.
+
+In all organisms below the scale of the human, there is a constant growth
+in complexity of organism, with specialization of functions.
+
+When we come to this last-mentioned stage of human development, we find
+that there is no more specialization in the way of development of the
+physical functions. Instead, there is a determined effort at perfecting
+the higher functions, through the gradations of consciousness, until the
+spiritual consciousness of the individual entity has been awakened.
+
+Then, indeed, has been awakened the "divine man" and the path to
+immortality is henceforth comparatively short, although by no means strewn
+with roses, judged from the limited standard of Relativity.
+
+A man's karma simply and mathematically, proves the direction of his former
+desires. Karma does not punish or reward, as is frequently imagined.
+
+The general impression that one is reaping "good or bad karma" according as
+his life is one of pleasure or of pain, is not the solution of the problem
+of karma, and has no relation to the law of karmic action.
+
+If a soul has in a previous life outgrown or outworn that evolutionary
+phase of development, in which the mind seeks temporary pleasures, and has
+come to the place where he wants to distinguish the Real from the Illusory,
+his karma, in compliance with the law of desire, will bring him in relation
+to those conditions which will teach him to know the Real from the
+Illusory, and in those conditions he will experience pain because he will,
+if he remain in the activities of the world, be acting contrary to the
+ideas of the _average_.
+
+Thus, to the onlooker, and in accordance with the general misinterpretation
+of the law of karma, he will be thought to have reaped a "bad" karma, while
+as a matter of reality, he will be making very rapid strides on the path to
+godhood. Said a famous Japanese high priest:
+
+"Desire is the bird that carries the soul to the object in which his mind
+is immersed, and thus his future actions are the result."
+
+This means that by the law of desire, acting in accordance with the
+evolutionary pilgrimage of the soul, the karma is produced. The American
+poet, Lowell, says: "No man is born into the world whose work is not born
+with him." However, whether or not this applies to man in the first stages
+of his upward climb to the goal of attainment of conscious godhood, it most
+assuredly applies to those souls who have become aware of their purpose,
+and who have made a _conscious_ choice of their karma. And of this class of
+souls, the world to-day has a goodly number.
+
+The end of a kalpa finds many avatars, and angels on earth, and however
+obscured the mind of these may become in the fog of Illusion, the inner
+light guides them through its mists to the safe accomplishment of their
+mission.
+
+There is a story of a Buddhist priest, who when dying, was comforted by his
+loving disciples with the reminder that he was at last entering upon a
+state of bliss and rest. To which the earnest one replied:
+
+"Never so long as there is misery to be assuaged, shall I enter Nirvana. I
+shall be reborn where the need is greatest. I shall wish to be reborn in
+the nethermost depths of hell, because that is the place that most needs
+enlightenment; that is the place to point out the path to deliverance; that
+is the place where the light will shine most brightly."
+
+Thus it will be seen we may not readily determine what is "good" and what
+is "bad" karma, by judging from external conditions.
+
+As we are told that we may entertain "angels unawares," so we may pass the
+world's avatars upon the street, and judging from the external, the
+physical environment, we may not know them from the vampire souls that
+contact them.
+
+The point of our present consideration is that this "year of grace,"
+meaning not the mere twelve months of the calendar year, but the century,
+is the end of the present _kalpa_ (cycle), and demonstrates that period of
+evolution has terminated, and the era is at hand when spiritual alchemy
+shall transform the old into the new, and that the desire, which has so
+long ministered to the wants of the physical body, shall be turned
+(converted) into the channels that lead to spiritual consciousness.
+
+The undefined, instinctive urge that has actuated so many intrepid souls,
+is becoming recognized for what it is--the awakening of the inner Self; the
+blind groping in the dark will cease and there shall arise a race of human
+beings liberated; free; aware of their spiritual origin and their inherent
+divinity.
+
+All who have conformed their life activities to the divine law of action,
+which may be tersely stated as "Not mine, but thine, dear brother," will
+have achieved the goal of the soul's purpose--will have found Nirvana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS
+
+
+During what is historically known as the Dark Ages, the esoteric meaning of
+religious practices became obscured. This is true no less, and no more, of
+Oriental countries, than of European. The long night through which the
+earth passed during that time and since, but foreshadowed a coming dawn. In
+the still very imperfect light of the dawning day, truth is seen but dimly,
+and its rays appear distorted, whereas, when seen with the "pure and
+spotless eye" they are straight and clear and simple.
+
+Indeed, the very simplicity of Truth causes her to pass unnoticed.
+
+While to the superficial observer; the student who is mentally eager but
+who lacks the wonderful penetrating power of spiritual insight, there seems
+to be a great complexity in Oriental philosophy, the fact is, that the
+entire aggregation of systems is simple enough when we have the key.
+
+One of the stumbling blocks; the inexplicable enigma to many Occidental
+students, is the problem of the preservation, of the Self, and the constant
+admonition to become selfless. The two appear paradoxical.
+
+How may the Self acquire consciousness and yet become selfless?
+
+Throughout the Oriental teachings, no matter which of the many systems we
+study, we find the oft-repeated declaration that liberation can never be
+accomplished and Nirvana reached, by him "who holds to the idea of self."
+
+It is this universally recognized aphorism which has given rise to the
+erroneous conception of Nirvana as absorption of all identity.
+
+Hakuin Daisi, the St. Paul of Japanese Buddhism, cautioned his disciples
+that they must "absorb the self into the whole, the cosmos, if they would
+never die," and Jesus assured his hearers that "he who loses his life for
+my sake shall find it."
+
+Christians have taken this simple statement to mean that he who endured
+persecution and death because of his espousal of Christianity, would be
+rewarded in the way that a king bestows lands and titles, for defense of
+his person and throne.
+
+This is the limited viewpoint of the personal self; it is far from being
+consistent with the wisdom of the Illumined Master.
+
+He who has sufficient spiritual consciousness to desire the welfare of
+_all_, even though his own life and his own possessions were the price
+therefore, can not lose his life. Such a one is fit for immortality and
+his godhood is claimed by the very act of renunciation--not as a reward
+bestowed for such renunciation.
+
+By the very act of willingness to lose the self we find the Self. Not the
+self of externality. Not the self that says "I am a white man; or a black
+man; or a yellow man; or a red man." That says "I am John Smith"--or any
+other name. The awareness of this kind of selfhood, this personal self, is
+like looking at one's reflection in the mirror and saying, "Ah, I have on a
+becoming attire," or "my face looks sickly to-day." It is the same "I" that
+looked yesterday and found the face looking excellently well, so that there
+must have been consciousness behind the observation, that could take
+cognizance of the difference in appearance of yesterday's reflection and
+that which met that cognizing eye to-day.
+
+Eagerness to retain consciousness of the personal self blocks the way of
+Illumination which uncovers the real, the greater, the higher Self--the
+_atman_.
+
+This constant adjuration to sink the self into The Absolute, is what has
+given rise to so much difference of interpretation as to the meaning of
+_mukti_, liberation. It sounds paradoxical to state that it is only by
+giving up all consciousness of self, that immortal Self-hood is gained.
+
+Thus has arisen all the confusion as to the meaning of "absorption into a
+state of bliss." How may the Self realize a state of selflessness and yet
+not be lost in a sea of _un_ consciousness?
+
+Only one who is capable of self-sacrifice were he called upon, can
+correctly answer this question, and by what may be termed the very _law of
+equation_, the sacrifice becomes impossible.
+
+Should any one seek to bargain with himself to pay the price of loss of
+self, so that he might gain the higher, fuller life, his sacrifice would be
+in vain because it would not be selflessness, but selfishness--there could
+be no _sacrifice_, were it a bargain.
+
+Let no one think that this unchanging law of the Cosmos is in the nature of
+either reward or punishment, or that it was devised by the gods, as a
+method of initiation--a test of fitness for Nirvana. Even though the test
+be applied by the gods, it is not of their planning.
+
+It _is_, just as the absolute _is_, and analysis of the way and wherefrom
+is not possible of contemplation.
+
+If it sometimes appears that Illumined Ones have seemed to infer a loss of
+identity of the Self, it should be remembered that not only have these
+reported instances of liberation (cosmic consciousness attained), been
+vague, but they have necessarily suffered from the impossibility of
+describing that which is indescribable. We should also remember that
+translators employ the words in the English language which most nearly
+express their interpretation of the original meaning.
+
+Words are at best but clumsy symbols.
+
+Perfect bliss is voiceless--inexpressible.
+
+This does not, however, mean that perfect bliss is nothingness. Rather is
+it _everything-ness_, in that it is all-embracing in its realization. In
+complete realization of the Cosmos nothing is excluded. Exclusiveness is a
+concomitant of the state of consciousness pertinent to the personal self,
+which state is not excluded from the consciousness described as cosmic,
+_nirvana_ or _mukti_, but on the contrary, is included in it, even as the
+simple vibrations of the musical scale are included in the great harmonies
+of Wagner's compositions.
+
+"He who has realized Brahman becomes silent," says Ramakrishna.
+"Discussions and argumentations exist so long as the realization of The
+Absolute does not come. If you melt butter in a pan over a fire, how long
+does it make a noise? So long as there is water in it. When the water is
+evaporated it ceases to make further noise. The soul of the seeker after
+Brahman may be compared to fresh butter. Discussions and argumentations of
+a seeker are like the noise caused during the process of purification by
+the fire of knowledge. As the water of egotism and worldliness is
+evaporated and the soul becomes purer, all noise of debates and discussions
+ceases and absolute silence reigns in the state of _samadhi_."
+
+A better translation of the word "noise" would be "sputtering."
+
+Sound is not necessarily _noise_. The idea conveyed is not intended to be a
+condition in which the soul becomes anæsthetized as it were, but a state of
+_knowing_, and the effort and the sputtering of _questioning_ and
+_searching_ is passed.
+
+The same gospel better expresses the meaning thus:
+
+"The bee buzzes so long as it is outside the lotus, and does not settle
+down in its heart to drink of the honey. As soon as it tastes of the honey
+all buzzing is at an end. Similarly all noise of discussion ceases when the
+soul of the neophyte begins to drink the nectar of Divine Love, at the
+lotus feet of the Blissful One."
+
+Who will not say that the bee is more satisfied when he has found and drank
+of the honey than when he is buzzingly seeking it?
+
+Surely it is not necessary to be of one mind, in order that we may be of
+one heart. Even though we were as "like as two peas in a pod," it is well
+to note that the two peas are _two_ spheres--nature has made them separate
+and distinct despite their close resemblance.
+
+To unite with the absolute should correspond to this unity of all hearts in
+the desire for a common effort to establish harmony, while we permit to
+each individual the freedom of mind; of taste; of choice of pursuits; of
+choice of pleasure; of discrimination; and preservation of identity.
+
+Our contention is that _mukti_, or liberation (which we believe to be
+identical with attainment of cosmic consciousness) does not mean an
+absorption into the Universal, the Absolute, Brahm, to the extent of
+annihilation of identity. And we claim that this view finds corroboration
+in the best interpretation of Oriental philosophies and religions, as well
+as in the Christian doctrine.
+
+Says Nagasena, the Buddhist sage:
+
+"He who is not free from passion experiences both the taste of food, and
+also the passion due to that taste; while he who is free from passion
+experiences the taste of food but no passion."
+
+Hence we discover that the state of Illumination, _samadhi_, or _mukti_,
+according to the most enlightened and logical interpretation, means a calm
+and peaceful consciousness, undisturbed by passion. But we should not
+interpret the word "passion" as here used, to mean absence of all
+sensation, feeling or knowledge.
+
+There is absolutely no arbitrary interpretation or translation of the words
+of Buddha, nor can there be. The same is true of Confucius; of Mohammed; of
+Krishna; of Laotze; of Jesus; of all the teachers and philosophers of the
+world.
+
+Who of you who read these words has not listened to debates and endless
+discussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or
+Nietzche or Kobo Daisi, or some other, may have meant by certain
+statements?
+
+In the Samyutta Nikaya we read:
+
+"Let a man who holds the Self clear, keep that Self free from wickedness."
+
+This does not imply annihilation of identity, _absorption_ of
+consciousness, although it has been so interpreted by many students. On the
+contrary, instead of losing consciousness of the Self (which is not merely
+the personality), we _find_ the Real Self.
+
+As an adult we realize more consciousness than we do as infants. Not that
+we possess more consciousness. We cannot acquire consciousness as we
+accumulate _things_. We can not add one iota to the sum of consciousness,
+but we can and do uncover portion upon portion of the vast area of
+consciousness which _is_.
+
+Says the Dhammapada:
+
+"As kinsmen, friends and lovers salute a man who has been long away and
+returns safe from afar; in like manner his good deeds receive him who has
+done good, and who has gone from this world to the other, as kinsmen
+receive a friend on his return."
+
+If this state of _mukti_ were annihilation of individual consciousness it
+would hardly be an incentive to do good deeds, except that good deeds in
+themselves bring happiness, but if the bringing of happiness did not also
+bring with it a larger consciousness, it would not be true happiness, but
+merely a _condition_, and conditions are always subject to change.
+
+"It is not separateness you should hope and long for; it is _union_--the
+sense of oneness with all that is, that has ever been and that can ever
+be--the sense that shall _enlarge the horizon of your being_, to the limits
+of the universe; to the boundaries of time and space; that shall lift you
+up into a new plane far beyond, outside all mean and miserable care for
+self. Why stand shrinking there? Give up the fool's paradise of 'This is
+I'; 'This is mine.' It is the great reality you are asked to grasp. Leap
+forward without fear. You shall find yourself in the ambrosial waters of
+Nirvana and sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
+
+This admonition to give up the struggle and strife for separateness is
+interpreted by many to declare for annihilation of consciousness of
+identity, but we contend that _union_ is in no wise akin to annihilation,
+and since this assurance of union is further described as an enlargement of
+the horizon of _your being_, it is evident that your being can not be
+enlarged by becoming annihilated, or even _absorbed into_ The Absolute, as
+in that event it would cease to be _your being_. Moreover, you are told
+that you will "sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
+Arhats are alluded to in the plural, and not as One Being.
+
+To be sure there may be a final state of absorption of consciousness far
+beyond this state of being which is described as Nirvana.
+
+Theosophy lays much stress upon the assumption that the attainment of
+godhood is possible to every human soul, but that this godhood must
+inevitably have an ultimate conclusion. That is, there is a _place_ or
+heaven, which is called the Devachanic plane, and this plane, or place,
+is inhabited by "gods," for a definite period, approximating thousands of
+years, but that the final conclusion must be, absorption of identity into
+the universal reservoir of mind, or consciousness. But we may readily see
+that beyond the Devachanic plane, we may not penetrate with the limited
+consciousness which takes cognizance of external conditions. Any attempt,
+therefore, at a description of what occurs to the individual consciousness
+beyond the areas of Devachan, must be futile.
+
+The argument that most logically postulates the assumption that all
+identity, or differentiation of consciousness, becomes absorbed into The
+Absolute, is based upon the fact that we remember nothing of previous
+states of consciousness. That is, the devious pathway by which the
+advanced and progressive individual has reached his present state or
+realization of consciousness, is shrouded in oblivion. From this it is
+not unnatural to assume that since we have come OUT OF THE VOID, having
+apparently no memory or realization of what preceded this coming, we will
+return to the same state, when we shall have completed the round of
+evolution.
+
+This postulate, is, however, merely the result of our limited power of
+comprehension, and may or may not be true. The answer is as yet
+inexplicable to the finite mind, considered from the standpoint of relative
+proof.
+
+If it were a fact, that all Oriental sages experiencing the phenomenon of
+liberation, _mukti_, had reported what would seem to be annihilation of
+identity of consciousness, we still maintain that this fact would not be
+proof sufficient upon which to postulate this conclusion, for the very
+obvious reason that the present era promises what Occidental theology,
+science, and philosophy unite in designating as a "new dispensation,"
+wherein the "old shall pass away," and a "new order" shall be established.
+
+"Look how the fine and valuable gold-dust shifts through the screen,
+leaving only the useless stones and debris in the catches; even so that
+which is infinitely fine substance becomes lost when sifted through the
+screen of the limited mind of man," said a wise Japanese high priest.
+
+However, it is our contention that Buddhism, far indeed from postulating
+the assumption that individual consciousness is swallowed up in The
+Absolute, as is frequently understood by Occidental translators of
+Buddhistic writings, announces a calm and unquestioning conviction in the
+power of man to attain to immortality, and consequent godhood, through
+contemplation of faith in his own identity with the _Supreme One_.
+
+When we consider that there are in the religion of Buddhism, as many as
+sixty different expositions of the teachings of the Lord Buddha, and that
+these vary, even as the Christian sects vary in their interpretations and
+presentments of the instructions of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, we begin
+to have some idea of the difficulties of correct interpretation of the
+obscure and mystical language in which _mukti_ is ever described.
+
+One of the most quoted of the translations of the Life of Buddha, reaches
+the English readers through devious ways, namely, from the Sanskrit into
+Chinese, and from the Chinese into English, and again edited by an English
+scientist who is also an Oriental scholar.
+
+We must also consider the poverty of the English language when used to
+describe supra-conscious experiences, or what modern thought terms
+Metaphysics. Only within very recent times, approximating twenty-five
+years, there have been coined innumerable words in the English language.
+
+The advances made in mechanical, scientific, ethical and philosophical
+thought, have made this a necessity, while, when it comes to an attempt at
+clarifying the meaning of mystical terms, a very wide range of
+interpretation is imperative.
+
+Buddha, addressing his servant, says:
+
+"Kandaka, take this gem and going back to where my father is, lay it
+reverently before him, to signify my heart's relation to him."
+
+It is related that the gem mentioned was a beryl, which in the language of
+gems signifies purity and peace. It must be remembered that all Oriental
+languages give power to gems, perfumes and talismanic symbols. This fact
+makes direct translation of Oriental writings a difficult task for the
+Occidental scholar, who, until recently at least, gave no power to
+so-called "inanimate" things.
+
+"And then for me request the king to stifle every fickle feeling of
+affection, and say that I, to escape from birth and age and death, have
+entered the forest of painful discipline.
+
+"Not that I may get a heavenly birth, much less because I have no
+tenderness of heart, or that I cherish any cause of bitterness, but Only
+that I may escape this weight of sorrow; the accumulated long-night weight
+of covetous desire. I now desire to ease the load, so that it may be
+overthrown forever; therefore I seek the way of ultimate escape.
+
+"If I should gain the way of emancipation, then shall I never need to put
+away my kindred, to leave my home, to sever ties of love. O grieve not for
+your son. The five desires of sense beget the sorrow; those held by lust
+themselves induce sorrow; my very ancestors, victorious kings, have handed
+down to me their kingly wealth; I, thinking only on eternal bliss, put it
+all away."
+
+The meaning here conveyed is simple enough to understand. From a long line
+of ancestors who had ruled with the unquestioned authority of Oriental
+monarchs, the young prince felt that he had inherited much that would
+retard his soul's freedom. The examples of kings and emperors who have
+abandoned their possessions have been too few to cause us to believe that
+they have held these possessions as naught.
+
+Through rivers of blood; through ages of despotism, and self-seeking, kings
+and emperors have maintained their vested rights bequeathing to their
+progeny the same desires; the same covetousness of worldly power; the same
+consideration for the lesser self; the same hypnotism that takes account of
+caste.
+
+To escape from these fetters of the soul, into a realization of the Eternal
+Oneness of life, was no easy task for the inheritor of such desires and
+beliefs and appetites as an ancestry of rulers imposes.
+
+And Prince Siddhartha was anxious to escape reincarnation--a theory or
+conviction inseparable from Oriental religion.
+
+His reference to "fickle affection" means literally that selfish affection
+of the parent, which would retain the fleeting joy of a few short earthly
+years of companionship, while the larger and more perfect love would bid
+the child seek its birthright of godhood. The word "fickle" here would more
+properly be translated transitory.
+
+Buddha's desire to escape from a continuous round of deaths and
+"leave-takings from kindred," does not necessarily imply an absorption into
+The Absolute; it may as logically be interpreted to mean, that liberation
+from the hypnotisms of externality _(mukti)_ insures the possession and
+power of the gods--power over physical life and death, and this power need
+not mean a cessation from individual consciousness, but rather, a full
+realization of individual _unity_ with the sum of all consciousness.
+
+There is another mistaken interpretation of the means of attainment of that
+state of liberation, which has been alluded to in so many varied terms. The
+fact that Buddha, like many of the Oriental Masters, sought the seclusion
+of the forest; the isolation, and simplicity of the hermit,--has given rise
+to the belief, almost universally held among Oriental disciples, that
+liberation from _maya_, the delusions of the world, can not be attained
+save by these methods.
+
+Monasteries are the result of this idea, and this Buddhistic practice was
+adopted by the first Christian church, since which time the real purpose
+and intention of the monastery and the nunnery have become lost in the
+concept of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably
+retires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to
+that enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, _mukti_, but
+as an "outward and visible sign" that he is willing to undergo the
+sacrifice of worldly pleasures at the behest of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the
+real object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the
+nature of a "bargain."
+
+In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:
+
+"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the
+two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is
+harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,
+whose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one
+not _affected_.
+
+"He who acteth, placing all action in the _eternal_, abandoning attachment,
+is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters."
+
+This is interpreted according to the viewpoint of the translator, even as,
+among an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost as many
+interpretations, and shades of meaning of a musical composition.
+
+True, the Oriental meaning _seems_ to be the one that we shall cease to
+love friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon
+the furniture of one's household when outworn, and no longer of service.
+
+We do not accept this interpretation.
+
+To abandon one's friends, one's loved ones, yea, even one's would-be
+enemies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,
+without sentiment or remorse, save one's physical self from destruction.
+
+No higher sentiment is known to struggling humanity than love of each
+other. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
+friend."
+
+Oriental or Occidental philosophy, whichever may be presented to the mind,
+as an unfailing guide, should be distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes
+the abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother, companion.
+That is, if we accept the dictionary meaning of the word "abandoned" as
+translated into English.
+
+A western avatar has said:
+
+"I will not have what my brother can not," and in this we heartily concur,
+not hesitating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize
+the fullness of this message, we shall not, as a race, have attained to the
+inheritance that is ours.
+
+But shall we then believe, that the Oriental doctrine is erroneous? Not
+necessarily.
+
+Errors of interpretation are not only natural but inevitable, and this
+interpretation of abandonment is in line with the idea of sacrifice (using
+the word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all
+the centuries just passed--centuries in which the idea of God was estimated
+by the conduct of the kings and monarchs of earth.
+
+A later revelation or dispensation has given what the Illumined One said
+was a "new commandment," and it is one more in accord with our ideals of
+godhood.
+
+"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye _love_ one another."
+
+But love, like everything which _is_, means much or little, according as
+the soul is advanced in knowledge, or is undeveloped.
+
+Perfect and complete love is not selfish; it desires not possession, but
+union. There is a world of difference between the two words.
+
+"The soul enchained is man, and free from chain is God," said Sri
+Ramakrishna.
+
+And the soul is enchained by illusion--by mistaking the effect for the
+cause, and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the
+incompleteness; the limitedness; the unsatisfying character of the
+changing--the external.
+
+Not that the pursuit of the external is sinful, but it is unsatisfying,
+while the soul that has caught a glimpse of that wonderful ecstasy of
+Illumination, has found that which satisfies.
+
+Upon this point of attainment of complete satisfaction, and certainty, all
+who have experienced the consciousness we are considering seem to agree,
+according to the testimony here submitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS EFFECTS
+
+
+The term Illumination seems a fitting description of the state of
+consciousness which is frequently alluded to as cosmic consciousness.
+Without the light of understanding, which is a spiritual quality, words
+themselves are meaningless. When the mind becomes Illumined the spirit of
+the word is clear and where before the meaning was clouded, or perhaps
+altogether obscured, there comes to the Illumined One a depth of
+comprehension undreamed of by the merely sense-conscious person.
+
+If we consider the recorded instances of Illumination found among
+Occidentals, we will find that such extreme intensity of effort as that
+which is reported of Sri Ramakrishna, and other Oriental sages, does not
+appear.
+
+It would seem that the late Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke of Toronto, Canada,
+was the first in this country to present a specific classification of what
+he termed the "new" consciousness, and to describe in some detail, he
+experience of himself and others, notably Walt Whitman.
+
+Dr. Bucke's first public exposition of these experiences was made at a
+congress of the British Medical Association in Montreal, Canada, in
+September of the year 1897. Dr. Bucke described this state of
+consciousness--a subject that seemed to him at that time to be a new
+one--in the following words:
+
+"But of infinitely more importance than telepathy, and so-called
+spiritualism--no matter what explanation we give of these, or what their
+future is destined to be--is the final act here touched upon. This is, that
+superimposed upon self-consciousness as is that faculty upon simple
+consciousness, a third and higher form of consciousness is at present
+making its appearance in our race. This higher form of consciousness, when
+it appears, occurs as it must, at the full maturity of the individual, at
+or about the age of thirty-five, but almost always between the ages of
+thirty and forty. There have been occasional cases of it for the last two
+thousand years, and it is becoming more and more common. In fact, in all
+appearances, as far as observed, it obeys the laws to which every nascent
+faculty is subject. Many more or less perfect examples of this new faculty
+exist in the world to-day, and it has been my privilege to know personally
+and to have had the opportunity of studying, several men and women who have
+possessed it. In the course of a few more milleniums there should be born
+from the present human race, a higher type of man, possessing this higher
+type of consciousness. This new race, as it may well be called, would
+occupy toward us, a position such as that occupied by us toward the simple
+conscious 'alulus homo.' The advent of this higher, better and happier
+race, would simply justify the long agony of its birth through countless
+ages of our past. And it is the first article of my belief, some of the
+grounds for which I have endeavored to lay before you, that a new race is
+in course of evolution."
+
+At a subsequent date, having given the subject further consideration and
+having collected data corroborative of his former observations, Dr. Bucke
+said:
+
+"I have, in the last three years, collected twenty-three cases of this
+so-called cosmic consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the
+new faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the
+mind experiences, is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a
+brilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause,
+and may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at
+first feels that he is becoming insane.
+
+"Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a
+feeling of certainty that there is a future life,--that would be a small
+matter--but a pronounced _consciousness_ that the life now being lived is
+eternal, death being seen as a trivial incident which does not affect its
+continuity.
+
+"Further, there is annihilation of the sense of sin, and an intellectual
+competency, not simply surpassing the old plane, but on an entirely new and
+higher plane. * * * The cosmic conscious race will not be the race that
+exists to-day, any more than the present is the same race that existed
+prior to the evolution of self-consciousness. A new race is being born from
+us, and this new race will in the near future, possess the earth."
+
+Dr. Bucke later published an article in a current magazine, illustrating
+the illumination of his friend Walt Whitman, and supplemented with an
+account of his own experience. We quote briefly from Dr. Bucke's account of
+his own experience:
+
+"I had spent the evening in a great city with some friends reading and
+discussing poetry and philosophy. We had occupied ourselves with
+Wordsworth, Shelley, Browning, and especially Whitman. We parted at
+midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodgings. My mind, deeply
+under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the
+reading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost
+passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and
+emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once,
+without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored
+cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere
+close by in that great city. The next moment I knew that the fire was
+within myself."
+
+While Dr. Bucke is unquestionably right in his estimate of the fact that "a
+new race is being born," as he expresses it, there can scarcely be any
+question of individual age, in which the new consciousness may be expected.
+Physical maturity can have nothing whatever to do with the matter, since
+the acquisition of supra-consciousness is a matter of the maturity of the
+soul. This completement of the cycle of the soul's pilgrimage and service,
+may come at any age, as far as the physical body is concerned. Indeed,
+science records no definite age at which even physical maturity is
+invariably reached, although there is an approximate age.
+
+A case recently widely commented upon was that of a child of six years who
+showed every symptom of senility or old age, which could hardly be possible
+without having passed what we call "maturity."
+
+Again, we find that some persons retain every indication of youth, both of
+mind and body, long after their contemporaries have reached and passed
+middle age. It is coming more and more to be admitted that age is relative,
+and that what we know as the relative is the effect of mental operations.
+Mental operations are subject to change--to enlargement.
+
+The advent of cosmic consciousness is, therefore, not subject to what we
+know as time, as applied to physical development.
+
+Nor should we speak of cosmic consciousness as an acquisition, but rather
+as a _realization_, since the consciousness _is_, at all times. It always
+has been, it will always be. Our relation to it changes, as we develop from
+the sense conscious to the self-conscious state and finally to what we term
+the "cosmic" conscious state. This latter must of necessity have been as
+yet only imperfectly realized, even by those of the Illuminati, who are
+known to the world as avatars and saviours.
+
+Several instances of the possession of cosmic consciousness by children,
+are personally known to the writer. A well-known woman writer in America
+thus describes a succession of experiences in what were evidently
+conditions of cosmic consciousness, although as she said, she did not
+until many years later realize what had taken place.
+
+Like Lord Alfred Tennyson, who tells of inducing in himself a state of
+spiritual ecstasy or liberation, by repeatedly intoning his own name, this
+lady acquired the habit of repeating in wonder and awe the name by which
+she was called in the household, which was an abbreviation of her baptismal
+name. The effect is best described in her own words:
+
+"It seems to me that I never could quite become accustomed to hear myself
+addressed by name. When some member of the household would call me from
+study or play--even at the early age of five or six years--I would
+instantly be seized with a feeling of great and almost overwhelming awe and
+amazement, at the sound, which I knew was in some way associated with me.
+
+"I found it extremely difficult to identity myself with that name, and
+often when alone would repeat the name over and over, trying to find a
+solution of the 'why and wherefore.'
+
+"At length this wonderment grew upon me to such an extent that I felt I
+must see this self of me that was called by a name.
+
+"I acquired the habit of standing on a chair to gaze into the mirror above
+the chest of drawers in my mother's bed-room, and putting my face close to
+the mirror, I would gaze and gaze into the eyes I saw there, and repeat
+over and over the name which seemed to me not to belong to that 'other
+self' hidden behind those eyes. On one occasion I became quite entranced
+and fell from the chair, after which I refrained from looking into the
+mirror, although I did not for many years get over the feeling of
+wonderment at the sound of my own name, and many times, on repeating the
+name aloud, I would feel myself being lifted up into what seemed to me the
+clouds above my head, until I felt myself being 'melted,' as I termed it,
+into the moving cloud of soft transparent light.
+
+"At this time I was between seven and eight years of age, and although I
+was far beyond children of my age, in my school studies, I was frequently
+admonished for being 'stupid,' owing to the fact that I could not remember
+the names of objects, nor could I be trusted on an errand.
+
+"While walking from our house to the grocer's, scarcely a block away, I
+would feel that sudden wonderment and awe of my name steal over me, and
+again I would be transported to some unknown, yet immanent region, utterly
+losing consciousness of my surroundings. I would sometimes awake to find
+myself standing before the counter of the grocery store, struggling to
+remember who and where I was, and what it was that I had been sent to that
+strange place for."
+
+This lady relates that she never dared to tell of her strange experiences,
+although she did not "outgrow" them until early womanhood, when she dropped
+the abbreviation of her name, and assumed her full baptismal name. Whether
+this latter fact had anything to do with the cessation of the experience is
+doubtful. At the same time, she declares that she can even now induce the
+same sensations, and transport herself into childhood again by repeating
+her childhood name.
+
+The following extract from a paper published in London, England, in 1890,
+gives a description of an experience of a young man who had fallen into a
+condition which the physicians pronounced "catalepsy." This young man was
+at the time a medical student, and had always exhibited a tendency to
+entrancement, or catalepsy. On recovering from one of these cataleptic
+attacks, and being asked to give a description of his sensations or
+experiences, the young man said:
+
+"I felt a kind of soothing slumber stealing over me. I became aware that I
+was floating in a vast ocean of light and joy. I was here, there, and
+everywhere. I was everybody and everybody was I. I knew I was I, and yet I
+knew that I was much more than myself. Indeed, it seemed to me that there
+was no division. That all the universe was in me and I in it, and yet
+nothing was lost or swallowed up. Everything was alive with a joy that
+would never diminish."
+
+Such, in substance, was the attempt of this young man to describe what all
+who have experienced cosmic consciousness unite in saying is indescribable,
+for the very obvious reason that there are no words in which to express
+what is wordless, and inexpressible. This authentic account of a young man
+under twenty years of age, however, serves to prove that there is no
+special age of physical maturity in which the attainment of this state of
+consciousness may be expected.
+
+This account was published seven years previous to Dr. Bucke's statement,
+and yet, since it is not quoted in Dr. Bucke's account, it is most unlikely
+that he had seen the article. Certainly the young man had never heard of
+the experience which Dr. Bucke later records, as "cosmic consciousness,"
+and yet the similarity of the experience, with the many which have been
+recorded is almost startling.
+
+The salient point in this account, as in most of the others which have
+found their way into public print, is the feeling of being in perfect
+harmony and union with everything in the universe. "I was everything and
+everything was I," said this young man, and again "I was here, there and
+everywhere at once," he says in an effort to describe something which in
+the very nature of it, must be indescribable in terms of sense
+consciousness.
+
+Illustrative of the connection between religious ecstasy and cosmic
+consciousness, we find the experience of an illiterate negro woman, a
+celebrated religious and anti-slavery worker of the early part of the last
+century.
+
+This woman was known as "Sojourner Truth" and was at least forty years of
+age in 1817, when she was given her freedom under a law which freed all
+slaves in New York state, who had attained the age of forty years.
+
+Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write, and her education consisted
+almost entirely of that presentation of religious truth which finds its
+most successful converts in revivalism.
+
+With this fact in mind, nothing less than the attainment of a wonderful
+degree of spiritual consciousness could account for her marvelous power of
+description, and her ready flow of language, when "exhorting."
+
+Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of her, in an article published in the
+Atlantic Monthly, as early as 1863:
+
+"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more
+of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence, than this
+woman. In the modern spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as
+having a 'strong sphere.'"
+
+The wonderful mental endowment which seems to follow as a complement to the
+experience of Illumination, when not already present, as in the case of
+Whitman, for example, is characteristic of "Sojourner Truth," or Isabella,
+as she was baptized.
+
+Naturally, this mental power, seemingly inconsistent with her humble
+origin, and her unlettered condition, is evidenced along those lines which
+made up the sum and substance of her life. Judging her from the broader
+concept of philosophy, Isabella appears somewhat fanatical, but the
+influence of her life and work was so great, that Wendell Phillips wrote of
+her:
+
+"I once heard her describe the captain of a slave ship going up to
+judgment, followed by his victims as they gathered from the depths of the
+sea, in a strain that reminded me of Clarence's dream in Shakespeare, and
+equalled it. The anecdotes of her ready wit and quick striking replies are
+numberless. But the whole together give little idea of the rich, quaint,
+poetic and often profound speech of a most remarkable person, who used to
+say to us: 'You read books; God Himself talks to me.'"
+
+Isabella's conviction that she had "talked to God," was unshakable, and
+was, indeed, the dynamic force which moved her. She was accustomed to tell
+of the strange and startling experience in which she met God face to face,
+and in which she said to Him: "Oh, God, I didn't know as you was so big."
+In the New England Magazine for March, 1901, there was given a full account
+of the work of this noted negro woman. Commenting on her sense of awe of
+the immensity of God "when she met him," the writer says:
+
+"The consciousness of God's presence was like a fire around her and she was
+afraid, till she began to feel that somebody stood between her and this
+brilliant presence; and after a while she knew that this somebody loved
+her. At first, she thought it must be Cato, a preacher whom she knew or
+Deencia or Sally--people who had been her friends.
+
+"We are not told whether these persons were living or dead, or whether she
+thought they had come in the flesh, or in the spirit to her relief. However
+this may be, she soon perceived that their images looked vile and black and
+could not be the beautiful presence that shielded her from the fires of
+God. She began to experiment with her inner vision, and found that when she
+said to the presence 'I know you, I know you,' she perceived a light; but
+when she said 'I don't know you,' the light went out.
+
+"At last, she became aware that it was Jesus who was shielding her and
+loving her, and the world grew bright, her troubled thoughts were banished,
+and her heart was filled with praise and with love for all creatures.
+'Lord, Lord,' she cried, 'I can love even de white folks.'"
+
+The question will legitimately arise here, as to the authenticity of an
+experience in which Jesus is said to be personally guiding and shielding
+her, but it must be remembered that the mind is the medium through which
+the spiritual realization must be _expressed_ and, as has been stated
+previously, the description of the phenomenon of Illumination, particularly
+when experienced in a sudden influx must partake of the character of the
+mind of the illumined one.
+
+William James, late professor of Psychology of Harvard University, in his
+exhaustive book _The Varieties of Religious Experiences_, in the chapter on
+"The Value of Saintliness," says:
+
+"Now in the matter of intellectual standards, we must bear in mind that it
+is unfair, where we find narrowness of mind, always to impute it as a vice
+to the individual for in religious and theological matters, he probably
+absorbs his narrowness from his generation. Moreover, we must not confound
+the essentials of saintliness with its accidents, which are the special
+determination of these passions at any historical moment. In these
+determinations the saints will usually be loyal to the temporary idols of
+their tribe."
+
+Applying this explanation to the case of "Sojourner Truth," we may realize
+that the literal conception of Jesus as her guide and shield, was a mental
+image, inevitable with her, as Jesus was the motive power of her every
+thought and act. And although at the moment of her Illumination, she
+realized the "bigness" of God, later, in arranging and recording the
+phenomenon, in her mental note-book, she tabulated it with all she knew of
+God--the religious enthusiasm of her work of conversion to the religion of
+Jesus.
+
+Says James, commenting upon the question of conversion in human experience:
+and this tendency to what seems a narrow and limited viewpoint:
+
+"If you open the chapter on 'Association,' of any treatise on Psychology,
+you will read that a man's ideas, aims and objects form diverse internal
+groups, and systems, relatively independent of one another. Each 'aim'
+which he follows awakens a certain specific kind of interested excitement,
+and gathers a certain group of ideas together in subordination to it as
+its associates."
+
+It is perhaps natural to assume that most instances of the attainment of
+Illumination, have been inseparable from religious devotion, or at least
+contemplative mysticism. This view is held almost exclusively by
+Orientals, and seems to have been shared to a great extent by western
+commentators upon the subject.
+
+A notable example among Occidentals, bearing the religious aspect, and one
+which is important from the fact that the person detailing his experience,
+was a man of mental training, is the case of Rev. Charles G. Finney,
+formerly president of Oberlin College.
+
+In his "Memoirs," Dr. Finney describes what Orthodox Christians generally
+call the "baptism of the Holy Spirit":
+
+"I had retired to a back room for prayer," writes Dr. Finney, "and there
+was no fire or light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it
+were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as
+if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then
+nor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state.
+
+"On the contrary, it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me and I
+fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a
+child and made such confessions as I could with choked utterance.
+
+"It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no
+distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect. As I turned and
+was about to take my seat, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost.
+
+"Without any expectation, without even having the thought in my mind, that
+there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever
+heard the thing mentioned, by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit
+descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul.
+
+"I could feel the impression like the waves of electricity going through me
+and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in _waves of liquid love_. For I
+could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of
+God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense
+wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my
+heart.
+
+"I wept aloud with joy and love. These waves came over me, and over me,
+one after the other, until I recollect that I cried out, 'I shall die if
+these waves continue to pass over me.' I said 'Lord, I cannot bear any
+more.'"
+
+We will note, that although Dr. Finney says that he could not remember ever
+having heard the thing mentioned by any person, yet he felt "the baptism of
+the Holy Spirit." It is practically impossible that Dr. Finney could have
+lived in an age and a community which was essentially strict in its
+Orthodoxy, without having heard of the phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit,"
+even though the words had escaped his immediate recollection. However, the
+point that characterizes Dr. Finney's experience, in common with all
+others, is that of seeing an intense light, and of the realization of the
+overwhelming force of love.
+
+The relation of this experience to a creed or system of religion, is
+something which, we believe, may be accounted for, as Professor James has
+said, on the fact of "historical determination."
+
+Until very recently, the idea that spirituality was impossible save in
+connection with religious systems, and rigid discipline, has been quite
+general.
+
+In the case of Dr. Finney, we find that all his life previous to this
+experience he had been noted for his simplicity and child-like trust.
+Following his Illumination we learn that he became a man of great
+influence, and power, because of "the wonderful humanity which he
+radiated."
+
+Similar in experience, in its effects, is a case related by Theodore F.
+Seward, the well-known American philanthropist, Mr. Seward relates the
+following story:
+
+"The strange experience which I here relate came to a friend whom I knew
+intimately, and from whose lips I received the account. It is a lady in
+middle life, who has for years been an earnest seeker for truth and
+spiritual light. She was alone in her room sewing.
+
+"Thinking, as was her wont, of spiritual things and feeling a strong sense
+of the presence and power of God, she suddenly had a consciousness of being
+surrounded by a brilliant white light, which seemed to radiate from her
+person. The light continued for some minutes, and at the same time, she
+felt a great spiritual uplifting and an enlargement of her mental powers,
+as if the limitations of the body were transcended, and her soul's
+capacities were in a measure set free for the moment. The experience was
+unique, above and beyond the ordinary current of human life, and while the
+vision or impression passed away, a permanent effect was produced upon her
+mind. She had never heard the term 'cosmic consciousness,' and did not know
+that the subject it covers is beginning to be discussed."
+
+It must be noted that in these experiences, the idea most strongly felt was
+the one of the "power and presence of God," and we are impressed with the
+fact that, no matter how varied may be the _creeds_ of the world, as
+founded by "saviours" and incarnations of God, there is a unity among all
+races, as to the fact of a one supreme universal power, which is Aum, the
+Absolute, and which must represent perfect love and perfect peace, since
+all who have glimpsed their unity with this power, testify to a feeling of
+happiness, peace and satisfaction, rare and exalted.
+
+By comparing the experience of those who have attained this state of
+liberation from illusion, through religious rites and ceremonies, or
+"sacrifice to God," as it is not infrequently called, with the experience
+of those who have recorded the phenomenon, apparently arriving at the goal
+through intellectual and moral aspiration, we will find that the results
+are almost identical, and the after-effects similar.
+
+It has been said that those who attain liberation have invariably sought to
+found a new system of worship, and this fact has given rise to the many
+paths or methods of attainment which have been taught by various Illumined
+Ones, both in the Orient and in the western world, supplementary as it were
+to the main great religious systems.
+
+We will take a short survey of a few of these systems in Japan and India in
+comparatively modern times, or at least during the last two thousand years,
+which is modern compared to the history of the Orient.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION
+
+
+The early religion of Japan, before the advent of Buddhism, was extremely
+simple.
+
+It consists of the postulate that there was but one God, _Kami_, from him
+all things came, and to him all things shall return. As has been stated
+previously, the chief injunction of Shintoism is: "Keep your body and your
+mind clean, and trust _Kami_."
+
+Shintoism literally translated, means "the way to God," and includes the
+belief that all persons ultimately reach the place where God dwells, and
+become "one with Him."
+
+In present day interpretations and descriptions of Shintoism, we read of
+the "heathen" belief that _Kami_ himself dwells in person, in the "inner
+temple" or sacred place of Shinto temples.
+
+This idea doubtless exists as a reality among the very ignorant
+superstitious devotees, much as among the ignorant Catholics we find the
+unquestioned belief that the actual body and blood of Jesus the Christ is
+contained in the Eucharist.
+
+The Shinto temple always contains an "inner or sacred shrine," which is
+equivalent to the "holy of holies," of the Mystic Brotherhoods, and
+typifies the fact that _within_ and not _without_, will be found the God in
+man, by finding which, man reaches liberation, or cessation from the cycle
+of births and deaths.
+
+A Shinto funeral is an occasion for rejoicing, because the departed one may
+be a step farther on the way to God, and since his ancestors were directly
+responsible, as a favor, for his occasion to become reborn, thus fulfilling
+the law of _karma_, the Shintoist pays much respect to his ancestors.
+
+The advent of Buddhism into Japan was made possible by the simple fact that
+the people were becoming somewhat disgruntled with Shintoism, because of
+its emphasis upon the never-to-be questioned postulate that the Mikado and
+his progeny was the direct gift of _Kami_ to his people, to be obeyed
+without demur, and to be adored as divine.
+
+Several generations of Mikados who did not fulfil the ideal of Deity--an
+ideal to which even savages attach the qualities of justice and mercy--left
+the masses ready and eager to grasp at a religion that gave them some other
+personified god, than the Mikado, much as a drowning man clutches at a
+straw.
+
+The Lord Buddha was a prince, therefore worship of him would not be an
+absolutely impossible step--an unforgivable breach of contract with the
+Mikado, and as he exhibited the qualities of humility and mercy and
+tolerance, he was welcomed. The religion of Japan is to-day regarded as
+Buddhistic, although the Imperial family, and consequently the army and the
+navy are to all outward appearance, Shintoists.
+
+Coming, then, to a consideration of the varying sects of Buddhism in Japan,
+and the corresponding sects in India, we find that there have been nine
+different incarnations of God, and that another, and, it is believed the
+final one, is expected.
+
+The intelligent and open minded seeker after truth of whatever race or
+color, will find in the instructions given man by each and every great
+teacher, whether we believe in them as especially "divine" or as mere
+humans who have attained to the realization of their godhood (_avatars,_) a
+complete unity of _purpose_, and if these teachers differ in _method of
+attainment_, it is only because of the immutable fact that there can be no
+_one and only_ way of attainment.
+
+Methods and systems are established consistently with the age and character
+of those whom they are designed to assist in finding the way.
+
+And again we must emphasize the fact that by the phrase "the way," we mean
+the way to a realization of the godhood within the inner temple of man's
+threefold nature.
+
+Thus, the intelligent, unprejudiced student of the religions and
+philosophies of all times and all races, will find that, while there are
+many and diverse paths to the goal of "salvation," the goal itself means
+unity with the Causeless Cause, wherein exists perfection.
+
+Perhaps it has been left for the expected Incarnate God, which Christians
+speak of as "the second coming of Christ," to make clear the problem as to
+whether this attainment or completement means an absorption of individual
+consciousness, or whether it will be an adding to the present incarnation,
+of the memory of past lives, in such a manner that no consciousness shall
+be lost, but all shall be found.
+
+In considering instances of cosmic consciousness, _mukti_, which have been
+recorded as distinctly religious experiences, and the effect of this
+attainment, the system best known to the Occident, is contained in the
+philosophy of Vedanta, expounded and interpreted to western understanding
+by the late Swami Vivekananda.
+
+But it should be understood that the philosophy taught by Vivekananda is
+not strictly orthodox Hinduism. It bears the same relation to the old
+religious systems of India that Unitarianism bears to orthodox Christianity
+such as we find in Catholicism, and its off-shoots.
+
+Vivekananda honored and revered and followed, according to his
+interpretation of the message, Sri Ramakrishna, whom an increasing number
+of Hindus regard as the latest incarnation of Aum--the Absolute. Not that
+the reader is to understand, that Sri Ramakrishna's message contradicted
+the essential character of the basic principles of orthodox Hinduism, as
+set down in the Vedas and the Upanashads.
+
+The same difference of _emphasis_ upon certain points, or interpretations
+of meaning exists in the Orient, as in the western world, in regard to the
+possible meaning of the Scriptures.
+
+Sri Ramakrishna, who passed from this earth life at Cossipore, in 1886, was
+a disciple of the Vedanta system, as founded by Vyasa, or by Badarayana,
+authorities failing to agree as to which of these traditional sages of
+India founded the Vedantic system of religion or philosophy.
+
+Vedanta, particularly as interpreted by Sri Ramakrishna and his successors,
+offers a wider field of effort, and a more intellectual consideration of
+Hindu religion than that of the Yoga system as interpreted from the
+original Sankhya system by Patanjali, about 300 B.C.
+
+Patanjali's sutras are considered the most complete system of Yoga
+practice, for the purpose of mental control, and psychic development.
+Patanjali's sutras are almost identical with those employed in the Zen sect
+of Buddhist monasteries, throughout Japan.
+
+These sutras, together with Buddhist mantrams will be considered in a
+subsequent chapter, devoted to the development of spiritual consciousness
+as taught by the Oriental sages and philosophers.
+
+One other great teacher of modern times who has left a large following, was
+Lord Gauranga, who was born in India in the early part of the fifteenth
+century. Gauranga was worshipped as the Lord God, whether with his consent,
+or without, it is not exactly clear, even though his biographers are united
+on the fact of his divine origin.
+
+Those who have espoused the message of Gauranga claim that he brought to
+the world "a beautiful religion, such as had never before been known." But,
+as this claim is made for all teachers and founders of religions and
+philosophies, we suggest that the reader compare the message of Lord
+Gauranga with those of other avatars and teachers.
+
+Lord Gauranga's message is known as Vaishnavitism, and we will here
+consider only those passages of his doctrine which shed light upon his
+attainment of cosmic consciousness. Certainly his breadth of mind, and his
+standards of tolerance, justice and consideration for all other systems of
+worship, would indicate his claim to cosmic consciousness.
+
+One of the contentions of the Vaishnavas is that they alone of all
+religious faiths, admit the divine birth and mission of the founders of all
+religions.
+
+Thus the Christians have declared that Jesus was the only Son of God; the
+Buddhists have claimed Buddha; the Hebrews have clung tenaciously to their
+prophets as the only true messengers from heaven, and the Mohammedans have
+refused, until the present century, to even sit at the table with the
+"infidels" who would not acknowledge Mohammed as the only true incarnation
+of Allah.
+
+It is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind
+followers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not
+any one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he
+had attained to spiritual consciousness.
+
+One passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many
+others who have sought to express the feeling of security, of
+_deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic
+consciousness. He says:
+
+"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that
+embrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the
+sole partner of my soul."
+
+The gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of
+love, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.
+
+The realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note
+of the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it
+has attained Illumination through love.
+
+God is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning
+all joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught
+by orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim
+that God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit,
+but that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God
+dwells.
+
+"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer
+be answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the
+demand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The
+real devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure.
+He will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling
+to God in divine reverence and love." Thus, say the Vaishnavas, "God serves
+as he is served, in absolute justice."
+
+Another salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is
+the "All-Sweetness" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the
+devotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and
+all-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea
+is similar to that of the Roman church, which bids its untutored children
+to select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because
+these characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more
+approachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been
+exploited.
+
+Be that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have
+earned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India
+and, according to a recent biographer, "he had all the frailties of a man;
+he ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an
+ordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost
+sages of India, the worship and reverence due a God."
+
+The fact that Lord Gauranga "behaved like a man," is comforting, to say the
+least, and presages the coming of a day when "behaving like a man" will not
+be considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will
+be less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.
+
+Very unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of
+the effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of
+the greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the
+sixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.
+
+This Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description
+of the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the
+bride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called "Love's Lament," and
+might have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.
+
+The life of Tukaram, like that of the late Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, was
+one long agony of yearning and struggle for that peace of soul which he
+craved. One of his chroniclers thus describes, in brief, the final struggle
+and the subsequent attainment of Illumination of this good man:
+
+"Selfless, he sought to gather no crowds of idle admiring disciples about
+him, but followed what his conscience dictated. He listened not to the
+counsel of his relatives and friends, who thought he had gone mad; and he
+bore in patience the well-meant but harsh rebukes of his second wife. After
+a long mental struggle, the agonies of which he has recorded in
+heart-rending words, now entreating God in the tenderest of terms, now
+resigning himself to despair, now appealing with the petulance of a pet
+child for what he deemed his birthright, now apologizing in all humility
+for thus taking liberties with his Mother-God, he succeeded at last in
+gaining a restful place of beatitude--a state in which he merged his soul
+in the universal soul,"--that is, Illumination, or cosmic consciousness.
+
+Sadasiva Brahman, one of the great Siddhas, and a comparatively modern sage
+of India, left a Sanskrit poem called _Atmavidyavilasa_, which gives a
+comprehensive description of the experience and the effects of
+Illumination, as for example:
+
+"The sage whose mind by the grace of his blessed Guru is merged in his own
+true nature (Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss Absolute), that great
+Illumined one, wise, with all egotism suppressed, and extremely delighted
+_within himself_, sports in joy."
+
+"He who is himself alone, who has known the secret of bliss, who has firmly
+embraced peace, who is magnanimous and whose feelings other than those of
+the _atman_, have been allayed, that person sports on his pleasant couch of
+self-bliss."
+
+"The pure moon of the prince of recluses, who is fit to be worshipped by
+gods and whose moonlight of intelligence that dispels the darkness of
+ignorance causes the lily of the earth to blossom, shines forth in the
+abode of the all-pervading Essence of Light."
+
+The above stanzas represent a more impersonal idea of the bliss of
+attainment than those of many others who have experienced Illumination, but
+they emphasize the same point that we find throughout all writings of the
+Illuminati, namely, the realization of the kingdom _within_, rather than
+without, and the necessity of selflessness--meaning the subjugation of the
+lesser self, the mental, to the soul.
+
+We come now to a consideration of the life and character of the Lord
+Buddha, whose influence is still stronger in all parts of the world than
+that of any other person who has ever taught the precepts of attainment.
+
+In Japan, for example, Buddhism, in its various branches, or
+interpretations, is the religion of the vast majority and even where
+Shintoism is the method of worship, the influence of Buddhism may be seen.
+So too, we find in Japan, a form of Buddhism, which shows evidences of the
+influence of Shintoism, but I think it may be admitted that Japan, above
+all other countries, represents to-day, the religion of Buddhism.
+
+Buddhism has been called the "religion of enlightenment," but the term
+"illumination" as it is used to describe the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, is what is meant, rather than the purely intellectual
+quality which we are accustomed to think of as enlightenment.
+
+Sakyamuni, another name for Buddhism, means also illumination, or
+realization of the saving character of the light within.
+
+The lamp is the most important symbol in, Buddhism, as it typifies the
+divine flame or illumination (which is cosmic consciousness), as the goal
+of the disciple.
+
+Another interpretation of the symbol of the lamp, is that of the power of
+the lamp to shed its rays to light the way of those who are traveling "in
+the gloom," and by so doing, it lights the flame of illumination in others,
+without diminishing its own power. An article of faith reads:
+
+"As one holds out a lamp in the darkness that those who have eyes may see
+the objects, even so has the doctrine been made clear by the Lord in
+manifold exposition."
+
+Again, in the _Book of the Great Decease_, we learn that Buddha admonished
+his disciples to "dwell as lamps unto yourselves." Another symbol used
+throughout Japan as a means of teaching the masses the essential doctrines
+of "The Compassionate One," has become familiar to occidental people as a
+sort of "curio." It is that of the three monkeys carved in wood or ivory.
+
+One monkey is covering his eyes with both paws; another has stopped his
+ears; and the third has his paw pressed tightly over his mouth. The lesson
+briefly told is to "see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil," and the
+reason that the monkey is employed as the symbol, is because the monkey,
+more than any other animal, resembles primitive man. If, then, we would
+rise from the monkey, or animal condition (the physical or animal part of
+the human organism), we must avoid a karma of consciousness of evil.
+
+Buddhism is full of symbolism, and these symbols must be interpreted
+according to the age, or of the individual consciousness of the
+interpreter, or the translator. But the fundamental doctrine of Buddha is
+essentially one of renunciation as applied to the things of the world.
+Nevertheless this quality of renunciation has been greatly exaggerated
+during the centuries, because of the fact that the Lord Buddha had so much
+to give up, viewed from the standpoint of worldly ethics.
+
+In the following "sayings of Buddha," we find that the quest of the noble
+sage was for that supraconsciousness wherein change and decay were _not_,
+rather than that he regarded the things of the senses, as sinful. For
+example:
+
+"It is not that I am careless about beauty, or am ignorant of human joys;
+but only that I see on all the impress of change; therefore, my heart is
+sad and heavy." Or this:
+
+"A hollow compliance and a protesting heart, such method is not for me to
+follow: I now will seek a noble law, unlike the worldly methods known to
+men. I will oppose disease, and change and death, and strive against the
+mischief wrought by these, on men."
+
+According to the _Samyutta Nikaya_, the twelve _Nidanas_ (or chain of
+consequences) are:
+
+"On ignorance depends karma;
+
+"On karma depends consciousness;
+
+"On consciousness depends name and form;
+
+"On name and form depends the six organs of sense."
+
+"On contact depends sensation;
+
+"On sensation depends desire;
+
+"On desire depends attachment;
+
+"On attachment depends existence;
+
+"On existence depends birth;
+
+"On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and
+despair.
+
+"Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise."
+
+Having arrived at this conclusion, the problem may be solved by learning
+how to avoid existence. But, let us consider what the term "existence"
+means. The common acceptance of the word, as used in the English, seems to
+include _being_; but if we will consider the word in its literal meaning,
+when analyzed, we find that it comes from "est" (to be), and the prefix
+"ex," meaning actually "_not-being_."
+
+The word _Being_, is a synonym for eternal life--for Deity. It does not
+savor of anything that has been created, or that will terminate. _Being
+is_, therefore, to cease to _ex_-ist, is to cease to live under the spell
+of the illusory and changing quality of _maya_, or externality.
+
+Far from meaning to be "wiped out," or absorbed into The Absolute, in the
+sense of complete loss of consciousness, it means the eternal retention of
+consciousness, unhampered by the delusion of sense as a reality.
+
+To escape from this chain of illusory ideas,
+and their consequences, the obvious necessity is
+to claim the soul's right to _Being_. This is done
+by dispelling ignorance (_A-vidya_) by vidya
+(knowledge). Thus karma ceases:
+
+"On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness of self;
+
+"On the cessation of this consciousness of self, cease name and form;
+
+"On the cessation of name and form, cease the organs of sense;
+
+"On the cessation of sense, ceases contact;
+
+"On the cessation of contact, ceases sensation;
+
+"On the cessation of sensation, ceases desire;
+
+"On the cessation of desire ceases attachment;
+
+"On the cessation of attachment ceases existence;
+
+"On the cessation of existence, ceases birth.
+
+"On the cessation of birth cease old age, and death; sorrow; lamentation;
+misery; grief and despair. Thus does the entire aggregation of misery
+cease."
+
+But, as to the exact interpretation of all these, Buddha himself says:
+
+"Ye must rely upon the truth; this is your highest, strongest vantage
+ground; the foolish masters practicing superficial wisdom, grasp not the
+meaning of the truth; but to receive the law, not skillfully to handle
+words and sentences, the meaning then is hard to know, as in the
+night-time, if traveling and seeking for a house, if all be dark within,
+how difficult to find."
+
+But let it be understood, that Buddhism as now taught and practiced is
+necessarily colored by the effect of the centuries which have elapsed since
+the Lord Buddha lived and taught the precepts of his Illumination. Modern
+Buddhism, as a religious system of worship bears the same relation to
+Prince Siddhartha, as does modern Christianity to Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+A short review of the life and character of the personalities around whom
+the great religious systems of the world have been formed will aid us in
+perceiving the unity of thought and character of the Illumined, and the
+similarity of reports as to the effect of this realization of cosmic
+consciousness will be apparent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER
+
+
+The salient feature of the law as given by Moses unto his people, the Jews,
+is that of strict cleanliness of mind and body. In this we find a
+similarity to the oft-repeated behest of Gautama, the Buddha, who
+constantly admonished his followers to keep their hearts pure and their
+minds and bodies clean.
+
+This spirit of cleanliness finds also a counterpart in the saying ascribed
+to Jesus, "blessed are the pure in heart."
+
+The cleanliness here referred to is doubtless not so much physical neatness
+as mental purity of thought--thought free from doubt and calumny and petty
+deceits and hypocrisy and selfishness and debasing perversions of the life
+forces; but during various stages of history we find that all teachings
+have their esoteric and their exoteric application.
+
+The law, as enunciated by Moses, according to the Jewish reports, laid much
+stress upon physical cleanliness, as an attribute of godhood.
+
+But Moses, if we may credit reports, was something far more inspired and
+illumined than a mere physical culturist--commendable as is personal
+cleanliness--and his admonitions were the result of that fine sense of
+discrimination and enlightenment which comes from cosmic perception even if
+he had not experienced the deeper, fuller realization of liberation, of
+which Buddha is a shining example.
+
+It is evident that the laws laid down by Moses were taught and practised by
+the Egyptians many many years prior to the time in which Moses lived, which
+from the most reliable authorities, must have been about four to five
+hundred years before the Exodus.
+
+This does not detract from the evidence that the great Egyptian-Hebrew, was
+a man of wonderful intellectual attainments, and from what we know of
+modern examples of Illumination, he also possessed a degree of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+The story of the seemingly miraculous birth of Moses, and the mystery with
+which his ancestry is surrounded, is also typical of one who has attained
+to cosmic consciousness.
+
+The Illumined one realizes his birthlessness and his deathlessness, and
+expresses it in symbolism, meaning of course, the realization that as the
+spirit is never born and can never die, the idea of age is an
+unreality--and should find no place in the consciousness of one who regards
+himself as an indestructible atom of the Cosmos.
+
+But the evidences regarding the probable Illumination of Moses are to be
+found in the reports of his ascension of Mt. Sinai, and what occurred
+there.
+
+The phenomenon of the great light which is inseparable from instances of
+cosmic consciousness, and which gives to the phenomenon its name
+"Illumination," was apparently marked in the case of Moses.
+
+The "burning bush," which he describes is the experience of the mind when
+the illusion of sense has ceased, even temporarily, to obscure the mental
+vision.
+
+"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, and out of
+the midst of a bush; and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire
+and the bush was not consumed."
+
+There is a subtler interpretation to this report than that usually given,
+even by those who realize that this expression is an evidence of the sudden
+influx of supra consciousness which attends the soul's liberation from the
+limits of sense consciousness.
+
+The "burning bush" is synonymous with the "tree of life" which is ever
+alive with the "fires of creation."
+
+All who realize liberation are endowed with the power to understand this
+symbol. For those who have not attained to this degree of consciousness,
+the esoteric meaning is necessarily hidden.
+
+The phenomenon of the strange mystical light which seems to enfold and
+bathe the Illumined one, is concisely expressed in the case of Moses.
+
+"And it came to pass, that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
+tablets of the testimony in hand, that Moses wist not that the skin of his
+face shone, or sent forth beams by reason of his speaking with Him.
+
+"And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold! the skin
+of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him."
+
+Again we find in the case of Moses, a momentary fear of the phenomenon
+which he was experiencing, in the influx of light and the sound of the
+voice which seems to accompany the light.
+
+The interpretation given the words spoken, and the identity of the voice is
+ever dependent upon the time and character of the mind experiencing the
+Illumination.
+
+Thus Moses claims to have heard the voice of the God of the Hebrews, but
+the probabilities are, that the "voice" is the mental operations of the
+person experiencing the phenomenon of supra-consciousness, and this
+interpretation will vary with what Professor James calls the "historical
+determination," i.e. it is dependent upon the age in which the illumined
+one lived, and upon the character of the impressions previously absorbed.
+
+This apparent difference of report, as to the identity of the "voice," is
+of small import.
+
+The salient point is that each person relating his experience has heard a
+_voice_ giving more or less explicit instructions and promises.
+
+In each instance it has been characterized as the voice of the God of their
+desire, _and adoration_.
+
+Certainly, whatever may be our opinions as to whether God, as we understand
+the term, talked to Moses, giving him such explicit commands as the great
+leader afterwards laid down to his people accompanied by the insurmountable
+barrier to dissent or discussion, "thus saith the Lord," we can but admit
+that the prophet was possessed of intellectual power far in advance of his
+time, and his laws did indeed, save his people from self destruction,
+through uncleanliness and strife, and dense ignorance.
+
+The ten commandments have been the "word of God" to all men for lo! these
+many ages, and even Jesus could but add one other commandment to those
+already in use: "Another commandment give I unto you--_that ye love one
+another_."
+
+To sum up the evidences of cosmic consciousness, or Illumination, as
+reported in the case of Moses, we find:
+
+The experience of great light as seen on Horeb.
+
+The "voice" which he calls the voice of "The Lord."
+
+The sudden and momentary fear, and humility.
+
+The shining of his face and form, as though bathed in light.
+
+The subsequent intellectual superiority over those of his time.
+
+The perfect assurance and confidence of authority and "salvation."
+
+The desire for solitude, which caused him to die alone in the vale of Moab.
+
+The intense desire to uplift his people to a higher consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE
+
+
+Gautama, prince of the house of Siddhartha, of the Sakya class, was born in
+northern India in the township of Kapilavastu, in the year 556 B.C.,
+according to the best authorities, as interpreted and reported by Max
+Muller.
+
+The Japanese tradition agrees with this, practically, stating that O Shaka
+Sama (signifying one born of wisdom and love) was born as a Kotai Si, crown
+prince of the Maghada country.
+
+We have the assurance that as a youth, Gautama, like Jesus, exhibited a
+serious mindedness and an insight into matters spiritual, which astonished
+and dumbfounded his hearers, and the sages who gave him respectful
+attention.
+
+Some accounts even go so far as to state that at the very moment of his
+birth the young prince was able to speak, and that his words ascended "even
+to the gods of the uppermost Brahma-world."
+
+Divesting the traditions that surround the birth and early life of the
+world's great masters, of much that has been interpolated by a designing
+priesthood, we may yet conclude that a certain seriousness, and a deep
+sympathy with the sorrows of their fellowmen, would naturally characterize
+these inspired ones, even while they were still in their early youth.
+
+It is evident that the young Prince Siddhartha was subject to meditation
+and that these meditations led at times to complete trance.
+
+It is reported that one day while out riding in all the pomp and
+accoutrements of the son of a ruling king, he was visited by an angel (a
+messenger from the gods of Devachan), and told that if he would lessen
+the sorrows of the world that he must renounce his right to his father's
+kingdom and go into the jungle, becoming a hermit, and devoting his life to
+fasting, prayer and meditation, in order to fit himself for the work of
+preaching the "way of liberation," which consisted of, first of all, to
+take no life; be pure in mind; be as the humblest, which latter admonition
+found little favor with the world of his personal environment where caste
+was and still is, a seemingly ineradicable race-thought.
+
+The sorrows of humanity weighed heavily upon his heart, and the
+superficialities of the wealthy and ostentatious court in which he lived,
+irked his outspoken and truth-loving spirit.
+
+Surrounded, as he was, by wealth and ease, with time for contemplation and
+a mind given to philosophic speculation, the young prince found no sense of
+comfort or permanent satisfaction in his own immunity from want and sorrow.
+He pondered long upon the way to become freed from the "successive round of
+births and deaths," and thus pondering, he sought solitude in which to find
+his questions answered.
+
+Fasting and penance have ever been the gist of the instruction given to
+those who would "find the way to God," and so to this end Gautama fasted
+and prayed, and practised self-sacrifice.
+
+But the attainment of liberation was not easy, and Siddhartha suffered long
+and practiced self-mortification assiduously, at length being rewarded; and
+"there arose within him the eye to perceive the great and noble truths
+which had been handed down; the knowledge of their nature; the
+understanding of their cause; the wisdom that lights the true path; the
+light that expels darkness."
+
+The terrible struggle which characterized the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, by so many of the sages and saviours of history, is, we
+believe, clue to the fact that no one individual may hope to rise so
+immeasurably above the plane of the race-consciousness of his day and age,
+except through intense and overwhelming desire.
+
+Gautama abandoned his heritage, his relatives, his wife to whom he was
+devoted, and his infant son, as we have previously stated, not because
+Illumination is purchasable at so terrible a price, but because his desire
+to _know_ transcended all other desires, and in order to be free from the
+demands made upon him, he must of necessity, seek solitude.
+
+Few examples of the attainment of cosmic consciousness are as complete and
+of such fullness, as that attained by Buddha, and no instance which history
+affords has left so great an effect upon the world.
+
+It is estimated that at least one-third of the human race are Buddhists.
+This is not saying that any such number of persons are like unto Buddha,
+nor do we contend that this is any evidence that his message is greater or
+more fraught with truth than that of other illumined ones.
+
+The intelligent student of occultism in all its phases will arrive, sooner
+or later, at the inevitable conclusion that all illumined souls have seen
+and have taught the same fundamental truth.
+
+Buddha was convinced that in The Absolute, or First Cause, there could be
+no sin and consequently no sorrow, and he persistently sought to inaugurate
+such systems of conduct and such a standard of morals as would lead the
+disciple back to godhood, or liberation from the "wheel of causation."
+
+To keep the mind pure and clean was the burden of his cry, well knowing
+that the mind is the fertile field wherein illusions of sense consciousness
+thrive. He says:
+
+"Mind is the root (of evil); actions proceed from the mind. If anyone speak
+or act from a corrupt mind, suffering will follow, as the dust follows the
+rolling wheel."
+
+That we can not expect to escape the result of our thoughts and acts was
+ever a doctrine of Buddha, albeit, he seems also to have sought to make
+clear to his disciples, the UNREALITY of sin as a part of the
+indestructible "First Cause."
+
+Many Buddhist sects interpret the doctrines of Buddha to deny a belief in
+a future existence, in at least as far as identity is concerned, but this
+conception is not consistent with the most reliable reports, neither is it
+in keeping with the extreme peace and satisfaction which all illumined ones
+experience.
+
+If extinction of identity were the goal of Illumination, it is
+inconceivable that the illumined ones should report the attainment of
+perfect satisfaction and bliss.
+
+Besides, it is clearly stated that Gautama told his disciples that he had
+already entered Nirvana, while yet in the body.
+
+"My mind is free from passions; is released from the follies of the world.
+I have gained the victory," said Lord Buddha to his disciple Ananda.
+
+It is also asserted that Buddha appeared in his own "glorified body" to
+his disciples after his physical dissolution, plainly indicating that far
+from being swallowed up in The Absolute, he had acquired godhood in his
+present body.
+
+Detailing the advantages of a pure life, Buddha said to his disciples:
+
+"The virtuous man rejoices in this world, and he will rejoice in the next;
+in both worlds has he joy. He rejoices, he exults, seeing the purity of his
+deed."
+
+Again, alluding to a sage (rahan), Buddha is reported to have said:
+
+"He is indeed blest, having conquered all his passions, and attained the
+state of Nirvana."
+
+This alluded to the acquisition of _Nirvana_ while still in the physical
+body. In other words, as we of this century understand the teaching, he
+had experienced cosmic consciousness.
+
+The modern version of the commandments of Buddha are almost identical with
+those of the Christian creed, and these commandments are, as we have
+previously observed, the same that Moses laid down for the guidance of his
+people. That they were old before Moses was born, is also more than
+problematical.
+
+It is also more than probable that Buddha did not personally write the
+ethical code which we now find submitted as the "Commandments of Buddha,"
+but that Buddha merely emphasized them.
+
+These commandments are not, however, understood, by the intelligent
+Buddhist as "sacred," in the sense that "God spoke unto Buddha."
+
+Moses doubtless assumed to have been divinely instructed in the law,
+although that supposition may be erroneous. He may have had in mind the
+same fundamental idea which all those expressing cosmic consciousness have
+had, that of being a mouthpiece of a higher power, rather than to attract
+to themselves any adulation or worship, as being specially divine.
+
+The "Commandments," therefore, as translated and ascribed to modern
+Buddhism, are an ethical and moral code for the _MORTAL_ consciousness,
+rather than a _formula_ for developing cosmic consciousness. These
+commandments are:
+
+1--Thou shalt kill no animal whatever, from the meanest insect up to man.
+
+2--Thou shalt not steal.
+
+3--Thou shalt not violate the wife of another.
+
+4--Thou shalt speak no word that is false.
+
+5--Thou shalt not drink wine, nor anything that may intoxicate.
+
+6--Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred and bitter
+language.
+
+7--Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk, but shall do all for
+others.
+
+8--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.
+
+9--Thou shalt not harbor envy, nor pride, nor revenge, nor malice, nor the
+desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune.
+
+10--Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods.
+
+And the devotee is assured, even as in the Christian creed, that "he who
+keeps these commandments, shall enter Nirvana--the rest of Buddha." But let
+it be understood that Gautama, the Lord Buddha, did not formulate these
+commandments. Neither are they considered as infallible formulæ, by the
+enlightened Buddhist.
+
+They constitute the ethical and moral code of the undeveloped man in all
+ages of the world, and among all peoples. They had become traditional long
+before Buddha came to interpret "the way of the gods." But Gautama, like
+Jesus, was an evolutionist, and not a revolutionist. He came "not to
+destroy, but to fulfill," and so Buddha paid no attention to the code of
+morals as it stood, but merely contented himself with emphasizing the
+importance of unselfishness--purity of heart and mind, because he realized
+that the mental world is the trap of the soul, even as "the elephant is
+held tethered by a galucchi creeper."
+
+Buddha taught the way of emancipation of the soul held in bondage by means
+of the illusions of _maya_, even as the elephant is held in captivity by so
+weak a thing as a galucchi creeper, which could be broken by a single
+effort.
+
+That many who keep the commandments are yet a long way from cosmic
+consciousness must be apparent to all. Therefore we are justified in
+assuming that the mere keeping of the commandments will not bring about
+_mukti_. Many a man follows the letter of the law, and escapes prison, but
+if he does this through fear of punishment, and not because of a desire to
+maintain peace that his neighbors may be benefited, then he is not keeping
+the spirit of the law at all, and his reward is a negative one.
+
+According to the most reliable authorities, Buddha died in his eightieth
+year, having spent about fifty years in preaching, in healing the sick, in
+conversing with exalted beings in the heavenly worlds, and in leaving at
+will his physical body and visiting other worlds.
+
+Buddha prophesied his coming dissolution, and expressed to his disciples, a
+hope that they would realize that he still lived, even when his physical
+body should have become ashes.
+
+As his last hour approached, Buddha summoned his disciples, and after a
+moment's silent meditation, he addressed himself to Ananda, his relative;
+as well as his favorite disciple, thus:
+
+"When I shall have disappeared from this state of existence, and be no
+longer with you, do not believe that the Buddha has left you, and ceased to
+dwell among you. Do not think therefore, nor believe, that the Buddha has
+disappeared, and is no more with you."
+
+From these words, it is evident that the state of Nirvana which Buddha
+assured his followers that he had already attained, did not argue loss of
+identity, nor translation to another planet.
+
+Nor is there anywhere in the sayings of Buddha, rightly interpreted, any
+suggestion of expecting or desiring personal worship. This, the great sage
+particularly avoided, as indeed have all illumined ones.
+
+It is evident that Gautama the Buddha had experienced that divine influx of
+light and wisdom in which he sought for others the happiness he had gained
+for himself, and to this end he was eager to leave to his friends and
+disciples such rules of conduct of life as should aid them in attaining the
+divine peace that comes from illumination.
+
+But that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly
+unbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the
+wisdom which illumination confers.
+
+To realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his
+birthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the
+one eternal source of life.
+
+It is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of
+a teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship,
+whereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to
+inculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a
+realization of cosmic consciousness.
+
+The points which characterize the person who has experienced a degree of
+illumination (entered into cosmic consciousness), were particularly evident
+in the life and character of Gautama, the Buddha. They may be summed up
+thus:
+
+A marked seriousness in youth.
+
+A great sympathy and compassion with the sorrows of others.
+
+A deep tenderness for all forms of life.
+
+A realization of the nothingness of caste and pomp and power.
+
+The firm conviction that he was instructed by angels.
+
+The wonderful magnetism and illumination of his person.
+
+The firm conviction of immortality--released from the "wheel of life" as
+he expressed it.
+
+The knowledge of when and where he was to pass out from the life of the
+body.
+
+The love of solitude and meditation. The intellectual power maintained even
+into old age.
+
+The unselfish desire to help others.
+
+Great and never-failing sympathy with suffering, a divine patience, and
+insight into the hearts of all forms of life, earned for this great soul
+the name "Buddha--The Compassionate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JESUS OF NAZARETH
+
+
+Turning now to the next in order of the world's great masters, or illumined
+ones, we come to a consideration of Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name the
+great moral system of religion, called "Christianity," is promulgated.
+
+It has been conclusively shown that the essential features of the
+present-day _system_ of religion, known as Christianity, were instituted by
+Paul rather than by Jesus, and that the system itself, like Buddhism, is
+the work of the followers of the great teacher, rather than that of the
+Master.
+
+Our present concern, however, is not with the system or method of the
+church, but with those historic facts which bear upon the question of the
+Illumination of Jesus, classifying Him, not as an incarnate son of God, in
+the accepted theological interpretation, but in the light of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+Jesus the Christ was born, according to the most reliable authorities,
+about six hundred years after Gautama, the Buddha.
+
+Whether or not the Nazarene was familiar with the Buddhist doctrines or
+whether He spent the years of His life which are shrouded in mystery, in
+the inner temples of either Thibet, India, Persia, China, or other oriental
+country, will doubtless always be a disputed point among controversialists.
+
+The fact does not matter, either way.
+
+There is an encouraging similarity in the fundamentals of all religious
+precepts, arguing that when a teacher is really inspired, the truth makes
+friends with him or her.
+
+Some writers on the subject of Illumination give exact dates when the flash
+of cosmic consciousness came to the various teachers of the world, but
+these dates are problematical, and they are also inconsequential.
+
+That Jesus was among those historic characters who had attained cosmic
+consciousness, there can be no possible doubt, even though his exact words
+will be disputed.
+
+Enough has come down to us through the ages to prove the fact that Jesus
+knew and taught the illusory character of external life (_maya_) and that
+he was himself absolutely certain of the "kingdom within," which he
+admonished his hearers to seek, rather than to live so much in the
+external. This he did because he well knew that constant dwelling in the
+external consciousness led not to liberation.
+
+_The light within_, was the substance of his cry, and that light, when
+perceived, leads to illumination of everything, both the within and the
+without.
+
+The transfiguration of Jesus was undoubtedly the effect of his being in a
+supra-conscious state, a state of exaltation, in which many mystics enter
+at more or less frequent intervals, according to their mode of life, and
+their objective environment.
+
+"And he was transfigured before them; and his garments became exceedingly
+white," we are told in the gospels, and there are many persons in the world
+to-day possessing the power of the inner or clairvoyant vision (not
+identical with cosmic consciousness), who have witnessed similar phenomena.
+
+In the "Sermon on the Mount," we find that Jesus spoke with such certainty
+and such authority, as one who had experienced the very essence of the
+cosmic conscious state, and was already freed from the illusions of the
+senses. His words, like those of all who have sought to give directions and
+instructions for the attainment of freedom from externality, are capable
+of interpretation in various ways, according to the degree of consciousness
+of the age in which the interpretations have been made.
+
+For example, we find these words of Jesus given different meanings, and in
+fact, there have been many and diverse discussions and conclusions as to
+exactly what the Master did mean by them:
+
+"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+
+Let us examine the phrase, and see if it accords with our ideas of cosmic
+consciousness. To be "poor in spirit," is not consistent with our
+understanding of the requirements for the expansion of the soul.
+
+Those who take this phrase literally, and who are opposed to religious
+concepts, as a factor in human betterment, are fond of using this phrase as
+an evidence of the fanaticism of Jesus, and his concurrence in the worldly
+habit of exploiting the poor, and "riding the backs of the wage slaves," as
+our Socialist brothers put it.
+
+Now let us, for a moment, consider the phrase _as a person who possessed
+cosmic consciousness would have said it_.
+
+One possessing the cosmic sense, viewing the external more as a trap of the
+senses, than as realities, would readily perceive that to amass wealth
+(external possessions), the mind must be in harmony with the methods and
+the ideals of the world, rather than that it should be concentrated upon
+the "things of the spirit."
+
+This idea is expressed in the phrase, "no man can serve two masters,"
+and while we are not prepared to say that the possession of worldly
+goods is absolutely _impossible_ to the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness--observation, reflection, and intuition will unite in the
+conclusion that they are more or less _improbable_.
+
+If then, we will interpret these sayings of Jesus in the light of a broader
+outlook than was possible to the understanding of his chroniclers, we will
+find that what he doubtless said was:
+
+"_Blessed in spirit_ are the poor, for theirs shall be the kingdom of
+heaven."
+
+And in his vision, which extended beyond the times in which he lived, and
+foresaw that the attainment of cosmic consciousness must involve a degree
+of physical hardship, he said:
+
+"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
+theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+
+A survey of the world's progress will readily prove the fact that those who
+have bent their talents and their energies toward the uplift of the race,
+have done so under great stress, and in the face of persistent opposition.
+
+This opposition is an accompaniment to altruistic effort, for the very
+obvious reason that the race-thought of the world is still materialistic.
+
+The thoughts that predominate are commercial. This is due to the fact that
+those who are wealthy have large financial interests to maintain; business
+problems to solve; that take about all their time. The poor find the
+maintenance of physical existence a task that absorbs the greater part of
+their mortal mind, and therefore, those who are devoting their time and
+talents to the work of regeneration (the coming of the cosmic sense), are
+necessarily in the minority, and the majority rules in thought, as in act.
+
+The present metaphysical movement lays great stress upon worldly success
+and "attraction" of wealth, as an evidence of possession of power and
+truth, but the law of equation proves that we obtain _that which we most
+desire_. A religious system which amasses great wealth in a short time does
+so, only because its _dominant_ teaching inspires the desire for worldly
+advancement, as the _prime requisite_.
+
+The same is true of an individual, as of a system.
+
+Not that the attainment of cosmic consciousness is absolutely impossible to
+a rich man, because a man may inherit riches and position and power, as in
+the case of Prince Siddhartha, the Lord Buddha; or he may have set in
+motion certain currents of desire for wealth, and later in life may change
+that desire, when naturally, the "business" he has created will follow the
+law which instigated it, and increasing wealth will result.
+
+But, let it be known, that Buddha renounced all his possessions, and there
+are many instances to-day of renunciation of worldly life and wealth, in
+order to attain to that supreme consciousness in which the illumined one
+possesses all that he desires, even though he have but one coat to his
+back.
+
+Let it not be thought that we mean to infer that God is partial to poverty,
+and that the rich man will be excluded from the attainment of the kingdom,
+merely because of his riches; but if riches be any man's aim, then
+assuredly he cannot "serve two masters" and it will not be possible for him
+to become illumined while in pursuit of worldly goods.
+
+Jesus said:
+
+"It is easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich
+man to enter the kingdom of heaven."
+
+It is now thoroughly established that the "Needle's Eye" was the name given
+to a certain narrow and difficult pass through which camels bearing heavy
+burdens, could not find room to pass, and Jesus sought to convey to his
+hearers the truth that persons bearing in their mental desires the load
+of many possessions, would hardly find room for the one supreme desire
+which would bring them into the kingdom (the possession of cosmic
+consciousness).
+
+But the most significant of the utterances of the illumined Nazarene is the
+one in which he said:
+
+"Except ye become as little children, ye can in no wise enter the kingdom
+of heaven."
+
+The possession of cosmic consciousness brings with it, invariably, the
+simplicity, the faith and _innocence_ of a little child. The child is
+pleased with natural pleasures, and does not know the worldly standard of
+valuation. And above all, the soul, while still attached to the physical
+body, is like a little child.
+
+The attainment of cosmic consciousness is possible only to one who has
+first "got acquainted with his soul"; when we are really soul-conscious we
+possess the innocence (not ignorance), of a little child, and we also
+possess a child's wisdom. We are, in other words, "as wise as the serpent
+and as harmless as the dove." Wisdom brings with it harmlessness. The truly
+wise person would not wilfully harm any living thing; wisdom knows no
+revenge; no "eye for an eye" philosophy; makes no demands.
+
+And what may be considered the second most significant remark of the Master
+_is_ this:
+
+"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say Lo,
+here; or Lo, there, for Lo, the kingdom of heaven is within you."
+
+Jesus, although forced by the conventions of the time in which he taught to
+conform to the laws laid down by the scribes and Pharisees, influenced by
+the strict views of the Israelites, who honored the law laid down by Moses
+and the prophets, still possessed cosmic consciousness to such an extent
+that he knew the folly of judging others by outward appearance, and also
+of promising them cosmic consciousness in return for obedience to
+prescribed rules or commandments.
+
+When it would seem to his critics that he did not sufficiently emphasize
+the traditional laws, that he was seemingly making it too simple and too
+easy for people to live, they sought to trap him into a statement that
+would oppose the accepted commandments.
+
+But this Jesus steadfastly refused to do. "I came not to destroy the law,
+but to fulfill it," he said.
+
+Like all those who have experienced cosmic consciousness, his policy was
+one of construction, and not of destruction. Evolution accomplishes
+peacefully what revolution seeks to do by force.
+
+Jesus laid little stress upon the commandments as they stood. He neither
+sought to emphasize them, nor to criticise them. All that he said was:
+
+"A new commandment give I unto you: that ye love one another."
+
+All truly illumined minds have made love the basis of their teaching, well
+knowing that where true love reigns there can be no destruction.
+
+Love conquers fear--the arch-enemy of mankind.
+
+Love makes it impossible to harm the thing loved, and universal love would
+make it impossible, for one experiencing it, to consciously bring the
+slightest pain to any living thing.
+
+Therefore Jesus taught repeatedly the doctrine of love, and he made no new
+commandments other than this.
+
+It has been said that inasmuch as Jesus laid greater emphasis upon this one
+great need than had any previous inspired teacher, he deserves greater
+honor.
+
+Theologians whose purpose it is to promulgate the doctrine of Christianity
+as superior to others, use this argument in support of their contention
+that Jesus was the only true son of God.
+
+But this view will be recognized as prejudiced, and lacking in the very
+essentials taught and practiced by the Christ.
+
+In the light of Illumination, it will readily be perceived that all persons
+expressing any considerable degree of cosmic consciousness, have taught the
+same fundamental and simple truths, as witness the following:
+
+Do as you would be done by.--_Persian._
+
+Do not that to a neighbor which you would take ill from him.--_Grecian_.
+
+What you would not wish done to yourself, do not unto others.--_Chinese_.
+
+One should seek for others the happiness one desires for
+oneself.--_Buddhist_.
+
+He sought for others the good he desired for himself. Let him pass
+on.--_Egyptian_.
+
+All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to
+them.--_Christian_.
+
+Let none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would dislike to be
+treated.--_Mohammedan_.
+
+The true rule in life is to guard and do by the things of others as they do
+by their own.--_Hindu_.
+
+The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of
+society as themselves.--_Roman_.
+
+Whatsoever you do not wish your neighbor to do to you, do not unto him.
+This is the whole law. The rest is a mere exposition of it.--_Jewish_.
+
+While it is probable that Jesus gave no directions or methods of
+attainment, yet the records of his sayings give the clue to the character
+of his instruction to those of his students who were capable of
+understanding, particularly as shown in a recently discovered papyrus,
+authentically identified as belonging to the early Christians. This-papyrus
+was discovered by Egyptian explorers in 1904. Although the papyrus was more
+or less mutilated, the meaning is sufficiently clear to justify the
+translators in inserting certain words. However, we will here quote only
+such of the "sayings" as were decipherable, without having anything
+supplied by translators.
+
+Evidently having been asked when his kingdom should be realized on earth he
+answered:
+
+"When ye return to the state of innocence which existed before the fall"
+(i.e., when manifestation will be perceived in its illusory character, and
+the soul freed from the enchantment of the mortal consciousness).
+
+"I am come to end the sacrifices and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the
+wrath shall not cease from you."
+
+This evidently corresponds to his saying, "They who use the sword, shall
+perish by the sword."
+
+The conclusion is obvious that hate and destruction beget their kind, and
+that love is the only power that can prevent the continuation of
+destruction. This may with equal logic, be applied to the sacrifice of
+animal and bird life for food, as well as the sacrifices of blood which
+formed a part of ancient ritual.
+
+His disciples said unto him:
+
+"When will thou be manifest to us, and when shall we see thee?"
+
+He saith:
+
+"When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed."
+
+The time is near at hand, when the body will not be regarded as something
+vile and unworthy; something of which to be ashamed and to keep covered, as
+if God's handiwork were vile.
+
+In fact, the function of sex, from the extreme of ancient sex worship to
+the present extreme of sex degradation, shall soon be established in its
+rightful place. It is not the purpose of this book to deal with this
+important subject, so we will say no more here.
+
+Nevertheless, this saying attributed to Jesus, the Christ, resurrected as
+it has been in this century, is timely. It is almost universally conceded
+that the time of the "Second Coming of Christ" is already at hand. Just
+what this second coming means, is interpreted differently by theologians,
+philosophers, scientists, poets and prophets, but there is a unanimous
+belief that the time is here and now.
+
+Those who have the comprehension to read the signs of the times, are
+cheerfully expectant of radical changes in our attitude toward the function
+of sex and the divinity of love.
+
+"When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male as
+the female, neither male nor female--these things if ye do, the kingdom of
+My Father shall come."
+
+Again, the meaning of these words depends upon the degree of illumination
+of the person reading them. They mean the present inevitable equality of
+the sexes, when each individual will count not as a mere man or a mere
+woman, but as an important factor in the world's redemption. Or, it will
+appeal to a few as the promised time when every soul which has completed
+the circle, ended its karma, and claimed its god-hood, unites with the soul
+of its mate, the two blending into one perfect whole--the Father-Mother God
+of the New Dispensation.
+
+Again we find in these newly discovered papyri a phrase bearing upon this
+subject:
+
+To the question of Salome:
+
+"How long shall death reign?" The Lord answered:
+
+"As long as ye women give birth. For I am come to make an end to the works
+of the woman."
+
+Then Salome said to him:
+
+"Then have I done well that I have not given birth?"
+
+To this the Lord replied:
+
+"Eat of every herb, but of the bitter one eat not."
+
+When Salome asked when it shall be known what she asked, the Lord said:
+
+"When you tread under foot the covering of shame, and when two is made one,
+and the male with the female, neither male nor female."
+
+"How be it, he who longs to be rich is like a man who drinketh sea water:
+the more he drinketh the more thirsty he becomes, and never leaves off
+drinking till he perish."
+
+"Blessed is he who also fasts that he may feed the poor, for it is more
+blessed to give than to receive."
+
+"Let thy alms sweat in thy hand until thou knowest to whom thou givest."
+
+It is not probable that any one who reads these words will make the mistake
+of assuming that Jesus advised us to inquire into the character or the
+antecedents of the one on whom we are to bestow a gift. Neither are we
+expected to ascertain whether he belongs to our "lodge" or not.
+
+If you give alms as though to an inferior; if you assume a self-righteous
+mind; if you give for hope of reward; then withhold your gift. In fact,
+unless you can realize that you are giving as though to yourself, keep your
+gift. It will do neither you nor the one receiving it, any good whatsoever.
+
+"Good things must come. He is blessed through whom they come."
+
+This presages the coming of the kingdom of love on earth, as a foregone
+conclusion. Yet, those who lend themselves _consciously_, as _servants_ of
+the cause--helpers in the establishment of the new order--are blessed.
+
+"Love covereth a multitude of sins, so be not joyful save when you look
+upon your brother's countenance in love."
+
+"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, for the greatest of crimes is
+this: if a man shall sadden his brother's spirit."
+
+"For our possessions are in heaven; therefore, sons of men, purchase unto
+yourselves by these transitory things which are not yours, _what is yours_,
+and shall not pass away."
+
+For the Lord has said in a mystery: "Unless ye make the right as the left;
+the left as the right; the top as the bottom; and the front as the
+backward, ye shall not know the kingdom of God."
+
+"Keep the flesh holy and the seal undented, that ye may receive eternal
+life."
+
+"If a man shall sadden his brother's spirit." This indeed is the greatest
+of all crimes, because out of man's inhumanity to man springs all the sin
+and sorrow of the world.
+
+"Unless ye make the right as the left; the top as the bottom; the front as
+the backward." The meaning should be clear enough and the words are worthy
+of the illumined mind of Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+The great sin is separation; segregation; "My and mine" as opposed to "Thee
+and thine." To the truly illumined one there can be no "mine," as distinct
+from another's.
+
+The sinner is no less my brother than is the saint. The beggar is as dear
+to me as is the rich man. Every man is a king. There are no "chosen of God"
+to the one who has entered cosmic consciousness.
+
+"For our possessions are in heaven. Use, therefore, the things of earth,
+while ye are living in the flesh (sons of men), in such a way and to such
+purpose that they will not enchain you in the maze of manifestation, and
+thereby require that you postpone your claim to immortality."
+
+This statement is distinct enough, as is also the one: "He who longs to be
+rich is like a man drinking sea water. The more he drinketh, the more
+thirsty he becomes and _never leaves off drinking until he perisheth_."
+
+The hypnotism of the external world is too well illustrated to need further
+comment. The man who enters upon the pursuit of worldly possessions;
+temporal power; personal ambition; thinking that when he shall have
+attained all these, then will he turn to the solution of the mystery of
+mysteries, finds himself caught in the trap of his desires, and he can not
+escape. He is under the spell of enchantment, wherein the unreal appears as
+real, and the real becomes the illusory.
+
+To sum up, the fragmentary accounts we have of the life and character of
+the man Jesus are conclusive proof that he had entered into full
+realization of cosmic consciousness.
+
+Like Lord Gautama, he appeared to his disciples after he had left the
+physical body, "glorified," as one who had taken on immortality.
+
+Nor was there ever, it would appear, any doubt in the mind of Jesus, of his
+right to godhood, while retaining, also, his self-consciousness.
+
+The intellectual superiority.
+
+The wonderful spiritual magnetism and attraction of his presence.
+
+The absolute, unwavering conviction of his mission, and of his immortality.
+
+The transfiguration, after his "temptation" and his prophetic vision.
+
+His great love and compassion for even his enemies.
+
+These are what made him indeed a Christ.
+
+The term "Christ" and the term "Buddha" are synonymous. They both mean one
+who has entered into his godhood. One who has attained to cosmic
+consciousness, leaving forever the limitations of the lower self.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PAUL OF TARSUS
+
+
+The system of worship known as Christianity owes its systematic foundation
+to Paul of Tarsus. Paul's sudden conversion from zealous persecution of the
+followers of Jesus of Nazareth to an equally zealous propaganda of the
+gospel of Light, offers a perfect example of the peculiar oncoming of
+cosmic consciousness.
+
+Paul evidently occupied a position of authority among the Jews and it is
+equally probable that he was near the same age as Jesus, as he is referred
+to as a "young man named Saul" in Bible accounts of the persecution of the
+early Christians. His illumination occurred shortly after the crucifixion,
+probably within two or three years.
+
+In Acts, chapter 8-9, we read:
+
+"And Saul was consenting unto his death (Stephen). And at that time there
+was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they
+were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria,
+except the apostles.
+
+"And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation
+over him.
+
+"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and
+hailing men and women, committed them to prison.
+
+"And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings, and slaughter against the
+disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters
+to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether
+they were men or women, he might bring them bound, unto Jerusalem.
+
+"And as he journeyed he came near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shone
+round about him a light from heaven.
+
+"And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him: 'Saul, Saul,
+why persecutest thou me?'
+
+"And he said: 'Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord said: 'I am Jesus, whom
+thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'
+
+"And he trembling and astonished, said: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me do?'
+
+"And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the city, and it shall be
+told thee what thou must do.'
+
+"And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but
+seeing no man.
+
+"And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no
+man; but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
+
+"And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.
+
+"And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, and to him
+said the Lord in a vision: 'Ananias;' and he said: 'Lord, behold, I am
+here.' And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the street called
+Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus;
+for behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias
+coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.'
+Then Ananias answered: 'Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much
+evil he hath done by thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority
+from the high priests to bind all that call on thy name.' But the Lord said
+unto him: 'Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name
+before the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel. For I will show him
+how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.'
+
+"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his
+hands on him, said: 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto
+thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive
+thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' And immediately there fell
+from his eyes, as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and
+arose and was baptized."
+
+Like all those who have entered cosmic consciousness, Paul sought the
+blessing of solitude, that he might readjust himself to his changed
+viewpoint, since he now saw things in the light of the larger
+consciousness.
+
+He says:
+
+"Immediately I conferred, not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to
+Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into
+Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus."
+
+The irresistible longing to get away from the sights and sounds of the
+external world, is one of the most characteristic phases of Illumination.
+It is only in order that they may take up the work of bringing to others
+this great blessing that those who have entered into the larger
+consciousness, eventually bring themselves to enter the life of the world.
+
+Thus, we find that Paul's great desire to bring the light to others, took
+him again to Damascus; and from the records we have of his utterances and
+his mode of living, we may gather some idea of the great change which
+Illumination made in him.
+
+Certain statements, which characterize all who possess cosmic
+consciousness, in any degree of fullness, emanate from the converted Paul.
+He says:
+
+"I must needs glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions
+and revelations of the Lord--for if I should desire to glory I shall not be
+foolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should
+account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And
+by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations--wherefore that I
+should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
+a messenger of Satan to buffet me."
+
+One of the characteristics of the Illumined is a deep humility. This is
+not in any sense an abasement of the self; not in any sense a feeling that
+it is necessary to "bow down and worship;" nor yet a tinge of that nameless
+fear, which the carnal-minded self feels in the presence of exalted beings.
+
+It is a humility born of the desire to make every one know and feel a sense
+of kinship with him; he hesitates to reveal all that has been revealed to
+him, lest those who hear his words may think he is either "speaking
+foolishly," through egotism, or else that they may look upon him as a being
+superior, more exalted, than themselves. And a divine compassion and love
+for his fellow being characterizes the Illumined. Again, Paul wishes to
+make clear the fact that he is still living in the physical body; living
+the life of a body, and until liberated from the conditions that influence
+the external world, he is himself subject to the lesser consciousness, and
+he does not want them to expect more of the personal self, than that
+personal self is capable of, under the conditions in which he lives.
+
+He desires no personal exaltation, or praise, therefore he hesitates to
+speak fully of his own revelations, but prefers to teach by reference to
+the experiences of others.
+
+Nevertheless, he tries to make clear the fact that he is not merely
+preaching a "belief," which he has embraced because of doubt or fear, or
+because it is a creed. Indeed, he is free from the "law" and is, therefore,
+not merely following a system, neither the old one which he has abandoned,
+nor a new one which he has accepted. He speaks from the "Lord," which is no
+other than the highest authority that man may know--namely, the authority
+that comes from the realization of his own imperishable godhood--the effect
+of cosmic consciousness.
+
+He says:
+
+"For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel as preached by
+me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor
+was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Christ.
+
+"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. But before faith came, we
+were kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
+afterwards be revealed. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ.
+For with freedom did Christ set us free."
+
+This we take to refer to his former adherence to, and belief in, the system
+of worship taught by the Jews, as a necessary and probably the only "way of
+salvation" acceptable to God. He wishes his hearers to understand that he
+is not bound by adherence to any creed; neither the old one, nor yet the
+new one, but that what he preached came from the light of cosmic
+consciousness, in which there is no law, nor sense of law. Cosmic
+consciousness gives to the illumined one a sense of freedom (Christ means
+cosmic consciousness, and not a personality).
+
+Cosmic consciousness confers, above all else, perhaps, a sense of freedom
+from every form of bondage.
+
+The duty and the obligations that bind the average person, are impossible
+to the cosmically conscious one. Not that he displays indifference toward
+the welfare and the rights of others. Far from that, he feels an added
+sense of responsibility for the irresponsible; an overwhelming compassion
+for the unfortunate, and a relationship greater than ever to mankind.
+
+But this sense of freedom causes him to do all _in love_, which he hitherto
+did because it was so "laid down in the law."
+
+Again St. Paul makes this plain:
+
+"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness,
+goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such as these there
+is no law--neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
+creature."
+
+When we are armored with the "fruit of the spirit," we have no need for
+rules of conduct; for methods of salvation; or for any of the bonds that
+are necessary to the merely sense-conscious man.
+
+Plainly, Paul recognized the fact that systems of religion, of philosophy,
+of rules and ethics of intercourse, are necessary only so long as man
+remains on the sense-conscious plane. When Illumination comes, there comes
+with it absolute freedom. God does not want to be worshipped on bended
+knee; by rites and ceremonies; by obedience to commandments, but the
+undisciplined soul acquires power and poise through these exercises, and in
+time grows to the full stature of god-consciousness.
+
+Nor is intellectual greatness to be confounded with the godlike character
+of the one who has attained to Illumination.
+
+Elsewhere in these pages we have made the distinction between knowledge and
+wisdom. Knowledge alone can never bring a soul into the path of
+Illumination. Wisdom will point the way, but love is the unerring guide to
+the very goal.
+
+St. Paul's expression of this fact is concise, and to the point. This
+observation alone, stamps him as one possessing a very high degree of
+realization of what cosmic consciousness is.
+
+"If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him
+become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is
+foolishness to God."
+
+The worldly wise man or woman asks "how much do I get?" The truly wise
+person cares nothing at all for possessions. He only asks "how much can I
+give?"
+
+And although we find in the marts of commercialism a contempt for the
+gullible, and the credulous; the trusting and the confiding, let it be
+known that the "smart" bargainer will indeed smart for his smartness, for
+in the light of cosmic consciousness, this alleged "wisdom" of men,
+appears as utter foolishness; wasted effort; a perversion of opportunity.
+
+Because "all these things shall pass away."
+
+Love alone is imperishable.
+
+Love alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act
+from motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.
+
+Again says St. Paul:
+
+"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am
+as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
+
+"And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
+knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
+not love, I am nothing.
+
+"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be
+burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
+
+"_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
+
+"But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be
+tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away.
+For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect
+is come, that which is in part shall be done away."
+
+It must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the
+prophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the
+community.
+
+The ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews.
+St. Paul's exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has
+entered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his
+open avowal that there was a far greater power--a more exalted state of
+consciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of "knowing all
+mysteries;" that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order
+that they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the
+perfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no
+one truly who became "a new creature", as he characterized this change,
+ever exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or
+"superior," or "holy," in the sense the latter word had been used.
+
+How, then, would they know when they had attained to this state of
+consciousness, of which he spoke, and which they but dimly understood?
+
+How might they know when they had found this great love that was to make
+them "a new creature"?
+
+First of all, they might know because:
+
+_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
+
+Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not
+itself; is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is
+not provoked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness,
+but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things;
+hopeth all things; endureth all things.
+
+In fact, _LOVE NEVER FAILETH_. Love is always a safe guide. No matter what
+may be said to the contrary; no matter how much suffering it entails; no
+matter how seemingly fruitless the sacrifice; or how ungrateful the
+results, _love_ never faileth.
+
+How can it fail when we "seek not our own," but only love for love's own
+sake, without regard to compensation or gratitude?
+
+St. Paul, with all who have expressed in any considerable degree this
+cosmic realization, seems to have expected a time, when cosmic
+consciousness should become so general, as to bring the kingdom of love
+upon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been
+prophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the "signs of the
+times" that were to usher in The Dawn.
+
+Moreover, the idea that there shall come a time when death shall be
+overcome, is a persistent part of every prophecy, and of every religious
+cult. In these days we find that science is speculating upon the
+probability of discovering a specific for senile death, as well as for the
+final elimination of death from disease and accidents.
+
+Whether or not this is to be the manner of "overcoming the last enemy," the
+fact remains that the almost universally held idea of physical immortality
+has a basis in fact, which this postulate of science symbolizes.
+
+"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortality must put
+on immortality, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
+and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the
+saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
+
+So said St. Paul, and his words show clearly that before his time there had
+been a prophecy and belief in the final triumph of love over death, not as
+an article of faith, but as a common knowledge.
+
+St. Paul speaks of the time when "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all
+be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
+
+"And then come to the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God,
+even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule, all authority, and
+all power."
+
+Unquestionably, if all men on earth in the flesh and in the astral, were to
+come into the light of the cosmic consciousness, there would be no need for
+laws, for authority or power. The kingdom, which signifies the earth as a
+planet, would indeed be delivered to God, which means Love, and "Love never
+faileth."
+
+And while we admit that these words of St. Paul may be applied to
+individual attainment of cosmic consciousness, and not refer to an era of
+earth life, in which the fruits of this larger consciousness are to be
+gathered in the physical, yet we maintain that the argument for such an
+hypothesis is strong indeed. He says:
+
+"For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the revealing of the
+sons of God."
+
+For the term "sons of God" interpret "those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness," and we may readily parallel this with the many allusions to
+the earth's redemption, with which history is strewn.
+
+To "redeem" the earth is quite comparable with the idea of redeeming any
+part of the earth's surface--either as a nation, or as a tract of
+land--which is not yielding the best that it is capable of.
+
+In the cosmogony of the heavens, the planet earth may well be likened to a
+territory that has possibilities, but which needs cultivation;
+encouragement; work; to bring out its possibilities and make it a place of
+comfort and enlightenment.
+
+So we have been informed--and an understanding of deeper occultism will
+bear out the information--that this earth is being made a "fit habitation
+for the gods" (i.e., cosmically conscious beings, to whom love is the only
+authority necessary).
+
+Paul clearly alludes to the redemption of the body, as well as the
+continuance of the life of the soul, when he says:
+
+"For the creation was subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason
+of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be
+delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of
+the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
+travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also,
+WHICH HAVE THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves, waiting for
+our adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body."
+
+St. Paul declared that even those who had glimpsed that wonderful
+Illumination (which have the first fruits of the spirit), are not free from
+the travail of the sense-conscious world, until such time as the cycle has
+been completed, and those who "are already in Christ, and then they that
+are Christ's at his coming," shall have made possible the perfected
+creation, and brought about the reign of love on earth.
+
+So that, when a sufficient number of souls shall have attained to this
+Illumination (cosmic consciousness), the "last enemy shall be overcome."
+That this present era gives promise of this hope, is evident.
+
+The attainment of cosmic consciousness brings with it immunity from
+reincarnation, as a necessity--as a law, but it does not provide against
+the coming of avatars--"sons of God," who are to "deliver Creation from the
+bondage of corruption."
+
+This also is clearly stated by Paul:
+
+"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. For the law of the
+spirit of life in Christ made me free from the law of sin and death."
+
+There never is any doubt in the minds of those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness, that they are spiritual beings and immortal--free from the
+law of karma; neither is there any thought of evil or of condemnation.
+
+They know that men are gods in embryo and that until they have been born
+into the cosmic consciousness--the realization of their _reality as
+spirit_, they must travail; but this sense-conscious state is not to be
+condemned any more than the child is to be condemned because it has not
+yet grown to adultship.
+
+The advice of St. Paul himself was simple enough and straight-forward
+enough. It was devoid of all subtleties; free from complexity; free from
+fear, or haste, or doubt, or strife, while confidently awaiting the
+universal attainment of Illumination.
+
+To the question as to what path to follow; what should be done to gain
+this great boon, if the law of the ancient Hebrews was not to be followed
+in its literal significance, Paul said:
+
+"Whatsoever things are honest; whatsoever things are true; whatsoever
+things are just; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely;
+whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there
+be any praise, _THINK ON THESE THINGS_."
+
+Which is to say, do not seek the letter of the way of Illumination. Do not
+look for forms and ceremonies and rules and systems, but look for that
+which is clean and pure and good wherever it may be found.
+
+In St. Paul we have fulfilled all the points that characterize those who
+have been blessed with the great Illumination.
+
+His broad outlook upon humanity, which refused to see evil or to condemn
+where formerly he had been noted for his zeal in bringing to condemnation
+all whom he believed to be heretics; his conviction of immortality; his
+humility, as far as personal aggrandizement was concerned; the great light
+in which was revealed to him the truth; the annihilation of the idea of sin
+and death; the realization that systems and laws and methods of worship and
+giving of alms and all the by-paths which formerly he had deemed necessary,
+were as naught compared to the great illuminating, all-embracing power of
+Love--the Savior whose kingdom should sometime be established upon
+earth--the time being when cosmic consciousness should be general.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MOHAMMED
+
+
+Despite the fact that the followers of Mohammed, the prophet, are among the
+most fanatical and prejudiced of all religious sects, Mohammed himself was
+unquestionably among the Illumined Ones of earth, and had attained and
+retained a high degree of cosmic consciousness.
+
+The wars; the persecutions; the horrors that have been committed in the
+name of Islam, are perhaps a little more atrocious than any in history
+although the unspeakable cruelties of the Inquisition would seem to have no
+parallel.
+
+The religion of Persia, wrongly alluded to as "fire-worship," marks
+Zoroaster as among the Illuminati, but as the present volume is concerned,
+in the religious aspect of it, only with those cases of Illumination which
+we are classifying among the present great religious systems, we cite the
+case of Mohammed, the Arab, as one clearly establishing the characteristic
+points of Illumination.
+
+When Mohammed was born, in the early part of the fifth century, the
+condition of his countrymen was primitive in the extreme.
+
+The most powerful force among them was tribal or clan loyalty, and a
+corresponding hatred of, and readiness to make war with, opposing clans.
+
+Although at the time of Mohammed's birth, Christianity had made great
+headway in different parts of the old world, it had made very little
+impress upon the Arabs. They worshipped their tribal gods, and there are
+traces of a belief in a supreme God (Allah ta-ala), but they were not as a
+race inclined to a deeply religious sentiment.
+
+One and all, whether given to superstitions or denying a belief in Allah,
+they dreaded the dark after-life and although the different tribes made
+their yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, and faithfully kissed the stone that
+had fallen from heaven in the days of Adam, the inspiration of their
+ancient prophets had long since died, and a new prophet was expected and
+looked for.
+
+The yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, which was at once the center of trade and
+the goal of the religious enthusiast, was observed by all the tribes of
+Arabia, but it is a question whether the pilgrimage was not more often made
+in a holiday spirit than in that of the devotee to the _Kaabeh,_ the most
+sacred temple in all Arabia.
+
+Indeed, it is agreed by all commentators, that the ancient Arab, "In the
+Time of Ignorance," before the coming of Mohammed, knew little and cared
+less about those spiritual qualities that look beyond the physical; not
+questioning, as did Mohammed, what lies beyond this vale of strife, whose
+only exit is the dark and inscrutable face of death.
+
+Besides the tribal gods, individual households had their special Penates,
+to whom was due the first and the last salam of the returning or out-going
+host. But in spite of all this superstitious apparatus, the Arabs were
+never a religious people. In the old days, as now, they were reckless,
+skeptical, materialistic. They had their gods and their divining arrows,
+but they were ready to demolish both if the responses proved contrary to
+their wishes. A great majority believed in no future life, nor in a
+reckoning day of good and evil.
+
+Such, then, was the condition of thought among the various tribes when
+Mohammed was born.
+
+It was not, however, until he was past forty years of age, that the
+revelations came to him, and although it was some time later that these
+were set down, together with his admonitions and counsel to his followers,
+it is believed that they are for the most part well authenticated, as the
+Koran was compiled during Mohammed's lifetime, and thus, in the original,
+doubtless represents an authentic account of Mohammed's experiences.
+
+It is related that Mohammed's father died before his son's birth and his
+mother six years later. Thus Mohammed was left to the care of his
+grandfather, the virtual chief of Mecca. The venerable chief lived but two
+years and Mohammed, who was a great favorite with his grandfather, became
+the special charge of his uncle, Aboo-Talib, whose devotion never wavered,
+even during the trying later years, when Mohammed's persecutions caused the
+uncle untold hardships and trials.
+
+At an early age Mohammed took up the life of a sheep herder, caring for the
+herds of his kinsmen. This step became necessary because the once princely
+fortune of his noble ancestors had dwindled to almost the extreme of
+poverty, but although the occupation of sheep herder was despised by the
+tribes, it is said that Mohammed himself in later life often alluded to his
+early calling as the time when "God called him."
+
+At the age of twenty-five he took up the more desirable post of camel
+driver, and was taken into the employ of a wealthy kinswoman, Khadeejeh,
+whom he afterwards married, although she was fifteen years his senior--a
+disparity in age which means far more in the East, where physical charm
+and beauty are the only requisites for a wife, than it does in the West
+where men look more to the mental endowments of a wife than to the fleeting
+charm of youth.
+
+It is also to Mohammed's credit that his devotion to his first wife never
+wavered to the day of her death and, indeed, as long as he himself lived
+he spoke with reverence and deep affection of Khadeejeh.
+
+We learn that the next fifteen years were lived in the usual manner of a
+man of his station. Khadeejeh brought him wealth and this gave him the
+necessary time and ease in which to meditate, and the never-varying
+devotion and trust of his faithful wife brought him repose and the power to
+aid his impoverished uncle, and to be regarded among the tribes as a man
+of influence.
+
+His simple, unostentatious, and even ascetic life during these years was
+noted. He was known as a man of extremely refined tastes and sensitive
+though not querulous nature. A commentator says of him:
+
+"His constitution was extremely delicate. He was nervously afraid of bodily
+pain; he would sob and roar under it. Eminently unpractical in the common
+things of life, he was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation
+of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling.
+
+"He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain," it has been said of
+him.
+
+"He was most indulgent to his inferiors and would not allow his awkward
+little page to be scolded, whatever he did. He was most affectionate toward
+his family. He was very fond of children, and would stop them in the
+streets and pat their little cheeks. He never struck anyone in his life.
+The worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was: 'What has
+come to him--may his forehead be darkened with mud.'
+
+"When asked to curse some one he replied: 'I have not been sent to curse,
+but to be a mercy to mankind.' He visited the sick, followed any bier he
+met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes,
+milked his goats and waited upon himself.
+
+"He never withdrew his hand out of another's palm, and turned not before
+the other had turned.
+
+"He was the most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and
+most agreeable in conversation; those who saw him were suddenly filled with
+reverence; those who came to him, loved him. They who described him would
+say: 'I have never seen his like, either before or after.'
+
+"He was, however, very nervous and restless withal, often low-spirited,
+downcast as to heart and eyes. Yet he would at times suddenly break through
+these broodings, become gay, talkative, jocular, chiefly among his own."
+
+This picture corresponds with the temperament which is alluded to as the
+"artistic," or "psychic" temperament, and allowing that in these days there
+is much posing and pretense, we still must admit that the quality known as
+"temperament" is a psychological study suggesting a stage of development
+hitherto unclassified. It is said also, that in his youth Mohammed was
+subject to attacks of catalepsy, evidencing an organism peculiarly
+"psychic."
+
+It is evident that Mohammed regarded himself as one having a mission upon
+earth, even before he had received the revelations which announced him as a
+prophet chosen of Allah, for he long brooded over the things of the spirit,
+and although he had not, up to his fortieth year, openly protested against
+the fetish worship of the Kureysh, yet he was regarded as one who had a
+different idea of worship from that of the men with whom he came in
+contact.
+
+Gradually, he became more and more inclined to solitude, and made frequent
+excursions into the hills, and in his solitary wanderings, he suffered
+agonies of doubt and self distrust, fearing lest he be self-deceived, and
+again, lest he be indeed called to become a prophet of God and fail in his
+mission.
+
+Here in a cave, the revelation came. Mohammed had spent nights and days in
+fasting and prayer beseeching God for some sign, some word that would
+settle his doubts and agonies of distrust and longing for an answer to
+life's riddle.
+
+It is related that suddenly during the watches of the night, Mohammed awoke
+to find his solitary cave filled with a great and wondrous light out of
+which issued a voice saying: "Cry, cry aloud." "What shall I cry?" he
+answers, and the voice answered:
+
+"Cry in the name of thy Lord who hath created; He hath created man from a
+clot of blood. Cry--and thy Lord is the most bountiful, who hath taught by
+the pen; He hath taught man that which he knew not."
+
+It is reported that almost immediately, Mohammed felt his intelligence
+illuminated with the light of spiritual understanding, and all that had
+previously vexed his spirit with doubt and non-comprehension, was clear
+as crystal to his understanding. Nevertheless, this feeling of assurance
+did not remain with him at that time, definitely, for we are told that
+"Mohammed arose trembling and went to Khadeejeh and told her what he had
+seen and heard; and she did her woman's part and believed in him and
+soothed his terror and bade him hope for the future. Yet he could not
+believe in himself. Was he not perhaps, mad? or possessed by a devil?
+Were these voices of a truth from God? And so he went again on the
+solitary wanderings, hearing strange sounds, and thinking them at one
+time the testimony of heaven and at another the temptings of Satan, or
+the ravings of madness. Doubting, wondering, hoping, he had fain put an
+end to a life which had become intolerable in its changings from the
+hope of heaven to the hell of despair, when he again heard the voice:
+'Thou art the messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' Conviction at length
+seized hold upon him; he was indeed to bring a message of good tidings
+to the Arabs, the message of God through His angel Gabriel. He went back
+to his faithful wife exhausted in mind and body, but with his doubts
+laid at rest."
+
+With the history of the spread of Mohammed's message we are not concerned
+in this volume. The fact that his own nearest of kin, those of his own
+household, believed in his divine mission, and held to him with unwavering
+faith during the many years of persecution that followed, is proof that
+Mohammed was indeed a man who had attained Illumination. If the condition
+of woman did not rise to the heights which we have a right to expect of the
+cosmic conscious man of the future, we must remember that eastern
+traditions have ever given woman an inferior place, and for the matter of
+that, St. Paul himself seems to have shared the then general belief in the
+inferiority of the female.
+
+It is undeniable that Mohammed's domestic relations were of the most
+agreeable character; his kindness and consideration were without parallel;
+his harem was made up for the most part of women who were refused and
+scorned by other men; widows of his friends. And the fact that the prophet
+was a man of the most abstemious habits argues the claim that compassion
+and kindness was the motive in most instances where he took to himself
+another and yet another wife.
+
+However, the points which we are here dealing with, are those which
+directly relate to Mohammed's unquestioned illumination and the spirit of
+his utterances as contained in the Ku-ran, corroborate the experience of
+Buddha, of Jesus, and of all whose illumination has resulted in the
+establishment of a religious system.
+
+Mohammed taught, first of all, the fact of the one God. "There is no God
+but Allah," was his cry, and, following the example, or at least
+paralleling the example of Jesus, he "destroyed their idols" and
+substituted the worship of one God, in place of the tribal deities, which
+were a constant source of disputation among the clans.
+
+Compare the following, which is one of the five daily prayers of the
+faithful Muslim, with the Lord's prayer as used in Christian theology.
+
+  "In the name of God, the compassionate--the merciful.
+  Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds,
+  The compassionate, the merciful.
+  The king of the day of judgment.
+  Thee do we worship and of Thee do we beg assistance.
+  Guide us in the right way,
+  The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious,
+  Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring."
+
+Mohammed never tired of telling his disciples and followers that God was
+"The Very-Forgiving." Among the many and sometimes strangely varied
+attributes of God (The Absolute), we find this characteristic most strongly
+and persistently dwelt upon--the ever ready forgiveness and mercifulness of
+God.
+
+Every _soorah_ of the _Kur-an_ begins with the words: "In the name of God,
+the compassionate, the merciful," but, even as Jesus laid persistent
+emphasis upon the _love_ of God, and yet up to very recent times,
+Christianity taught the _fear and wrath_ of God, losing sight of the one
+great and important fact that _God is love_, and that _love is God_, so the
+Muslims overlooked the _real_ message, and the greatness and the power and
+the fearfulness of God, is the incentive of the followers of the Illumined
+Mohammed.
+
+The following extracts from the Kur-an are almost identical with many
+passages in the Holy Scriptures of the Christian, and are comparable with
+the sayings of the Lord Buddha.
+
+"God. There is no God but He, the ever-living, the ever-subsisting. Slumber
+seizeth Him not nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens
+and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him,
+save by His permission?"
+
+The Muslim is a fatalist, but this may be due less to the teachings of the
+prophet than to the peculiar quality of the Arab nature, which makes him
+stake everything, even his own liberty upon the cast of a die.
+
+The leading doctrine of the all-powerfulness of God seems to warrant the
+belief in fatalism--belief which offers a stumbling block to all
+theologians, all philosophers, all thinkers. If God is omnipotent,
+omnipresent, omniscient, how and where and in what manner can be explained
+the necessity of individual effort?
+
+This problem is not at all clear to the western mind, and it is equally
+obscure to that of the East.
+
+It is said of Mohammed that when asked concerning the doctrine of
+"fatalism" he would show more anger than at any other question that could
+be put to him. He found it impossible to explain that while all knowledge
+was God's, yet the individual was responsible for his own salvation, by
+virtue of his good deeds and words. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that
+Mohammed possessed the key to this seeming riddle; but how could it be
+possible to speak in a language which was totally incomprehensible to them
+of this knowledge--the language of cosmic consciousness?
+
+Like Jesus, who said: "Many things I have to tell you, but you can not bear
+(understand) them now," so, we may well believe that Mohammed was
+hard-pressed to find language comprehensible to his followers, in which to
+explain the all-knowingness and all-powerfulness of God, and at the same
+time, not have them fall into the error of the _fatal_ doctrine of
+fatalism.
+
+But throughout all his teachings Mohammed's chief concern seemed to be to
+draw his people away from their worship of idols, and to this end he laid
+constant and repeated emphasis upon the one-ness of God; the all-ness, the
+completeness of the one God; always adding "_the Compassionate_, the
+Loving."
+
+This constant allusion to the all-ness of God is in line with
+all who have attained to cosmic consciousness. Nothing more
+impresses the illumined mind, than the fact that the universe is
+One--uni--(one)--verse--(song)--one glorious harmony when taken in its
+entirety, but when broken up and segregated, and set at variance, we
+find discord, even as the score of a grand operatic composition when
+played in unison makes perfect harmony but when incomplete, is
+nerve-racking.
+
+Like all inspired teachers, Mohammed taught the end of the world of sense,
+and the coming of the day of judgment, and the final reign of peace and
+love. This may, of course, be interpreted literally, and applied to a life
+other than that which is to be lived on this planet, but it may also with
+equal logic be assumed that Mohammed foresaw the dawn of cosmic
+consciousness as a race-endowment, belonging to the inheritors of this
+sphere called earth. In either event the ultimate is the same, whether the
+one who suffers and attains, comes into his own in some plane or place in
+the heavens, or whether he becomes at-one with God, The Absolute Love and
+Power of the spheres, and "inherits the earth," in the days of the
+on-coming higher degree of consciousness, which we are here considering.
+
+That Mohammed realized the nothingness of form and ritual, except it be
+accompanied by sincerity and understanding, is evident in the following:
+
+"Your turning your faces _in prayer_, towards the East and the West, is not
+piety; but the pious is he who believeth in God, and the last day, and in
+the angels and in the Scripture; and the prophets, and who giveth money
+notwithstanding his love of it to relations and orphans, and to the needy
+and the son of the road, and to the askers for the _freeing of slaves_; and
+who performeth prayer and giveth the alms, and those who perform their
+covenant when they covenant; and the patient in adversity and affliction
+and the time of violence. These are they who have been true; and these are
+they who fear God."
+
+Parallel with the doctrine taught by Buddha, and Jesus, is the advice to
+overcome evil with good. In our modern metaphysical language, we must
+dissolve the vibrations of hate, by the power of love, instead of opposing
+hate with hate, war with war, revenge with revenge.
+
+Mohammed expressed this doctrine of non-resistance thus:
+
+"Turn away evil by that which is better; and lo, he, between whom and
+thyself was enmity, shall become as though he were a warm friend."
+
+"But none is endowed with this, except those who have been patient and none
+is endowed with it, except he who is greatly favored."
+
+Mohammed meant by these words "he who is greatly favored," to explain that
+in order to see the wisdom and the glory of such conduct, one must have
+attained to spiritual consciousness. This was especially a new doctrine to
+the people to whom he was preaching, because it was considered cowardice to
+fail to resent a blow. Pride of family and birth was the strongest trait in
+the Arab nature.
+
+In furtherance of this doing good to others, we find these words: "If ye
+are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at
+least return it; verily. God taketh count of these things. If there be any
+under a difficulty wait until it be easy; but if ye remit it as alms, it
+will be better for you."
+
+Mohammed here referred to debtors and creditors; as he was talking to
+traders, merchants, men who were constantly buying and selling, this
+admonition was in line with his teaching, which was to "do unto others
+that which you would that they do unto you."
+
+In further compliance with his doctrine of doing good for good's sake
+Mohammed said: "If ye manifest alms, good will it be; but if ye conceal
+them and give them to the poor, it will be better for you; and it will
+expiate some of your sins."
+
+Alms-giving, as an ostentatious display among church members, was here
+given its rightful place. It is well and good to give openly to
+organizations, but it is better to give to individuals who need it,
+secretly and quietly to give, without hope, or expectation, or desire for
+thanks, or for reward, to give for the love of giving, for the sole wish to
+make others happy. This desire to bestow upon others the happiness which
+has come to them, is a characteristic of the cosmic conscious man or woman.
+
+It is comforting to know that Mohammed, like Buddha and The Man of Sorrows;
+and like Sri Ramakrishna, the saint of India, at length attained unto that
+peaceful calm that comes to one who has found the way of Illumination. It
+is doubtless impossible for the merely sense-conscious person to form any
+adequate idea of the inward urge; the agony of doubts and questionings; the
+imperative necessity such a one feels, to _KNOW_.
+
+The sense-conscious person reads of the lives of these men and wonders why
+they could not be happy with the things of the world. The temptation that
+we are told came to Jesus in the garden, is typical of the state of
+transition from sense-consciousness to cosmic consciousness. The
+sense-conscious person regards the _things of the senses_ as important. He
+is actuated by ambition or self-seeking or by love of physical comfort or
+by physical activity, to _obtain_ the possessions of sense. To such as
+these, the agonies of mind; the physical hardships; the ever-ready
+forgiveness and the desire for peace and love of the Illuminate seem almost
+weaknesses. Therefore, they can not fully comprehend the satisfaction which
+comes to the one who has come into a realization of illumination, through
+the years of mental tribulation such as that endured by Mohammed and Jesus
+and Buddha.
+
+We are told that the prophet repeatedly refuted the suggestion of his
+adoring followers that he was God himself come to earth.
+
+"It is wonderful," says one of his commentators, "with his temptations,
+how great a humility was ever is, how little he assumed of all the godlike
+attributes men forced upon him. His whole life is one long argument for his
+loyalty to truth. He had but one answer for his worshippers, 'I am no more
+than a man; I am only human.' * * * He was sublimely confident of this
+single attribute that he was the messenger of the Lord of the daybreak, and
+that the words he spake came verily from him. He was fully persuaded that
+God had sent him to do a great work among his people in Arabia. Nervous to
+the verge of madness, subject to hysteria, given to wild dreaming in
+solitary places, his was a temperament that easily lends itself to
+religious enthusiasm."
+
+While it may be argued that Mohammed did not possess cosmic consciousness
+in the degree of fullness which we find in the life of St. Paul, for
+example, we must take into consideration the temperament of the Arab, and
+the conditions under which he labored. But that he had attained a high
+degree of Illumination is beyond dispute. This fact is evidenced by the
+following salient points characteristic of cosmic consciousness: A fine
+sensitive, highly-strung organization; a deep and serious thoughtfulness,
+especially regarding the realities of life; an indifference to the call of
+personal ambition; love of solitude and the mental urge that demands to
+know the answer to life's riddle.
+
+Following the time of illumination on Mount Hara we find Mohammed
+possessing a conviction of the truth of immortality and the goodness of
+God; we find him also with a wonderful power to draw people to him in
+loving service; and the irresistible desire to bring to his people the
+message of immortal life, and the necessity to look more to spiritual
+things than to the things of the flesh. Added to this, we find Mohammed
+changed from a shrinking, sensitive youth, given to much reflection and
+silent meditation, into a man with perfect confidence in his own mission
+and in his ultimate victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
+
+
+While the Swedenborgians, as a religious sect, are not numerically
+sufficient to be reckoned among the world's great religions, it is yet a
+fact that the followers of the great Swedish seer and scientist hold a
+prominent place among the innumerable sects which the beginning of this
+century finds flourishing.
+
+Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, in January, 1688, and lived to the
+advanced age of eighty-four years.
+
+Swedenborg was well born; he was the son of a bishop of the Swedish church,
+and during his lifetime held many positions of honor. He was a friend and
+adviser of the king, and his expert knowledge of mining engineering gave
+him a place among the scientists of his age.
+
+He was a voluminous writer, his early work being confined to the phases of
+materialistic science, notably on mines and metals, and later upon man, in
+his physiological aspect.
+
+His "De Cerebro and Psychologia Rationales," published in his fifty-seventh
+year, showed a different Swedenborg from the one to whom his colleagues
+were accustomed to refer with much respect.
+
+This book dealt with man, not as a product of brute creation, but as an
+evolutionary creature, having at least a possibility of divine origin. It
+is, however, his "Arcana Coelestia" upon which "The Church of the New
+Jerusalem" is founded; and it is this work which caused Swedenborg's
+friends and colleagues to determine that he had become insane. It is, in
+fact, only within very recent years, that the so-called scientific world
+has deigned to regard Swedenborg's revelations with any degree of serious
+and respectful attention.
+
+Swedenborg's Illumination was not, like that of so many others, who have
+founded a new religion, a sudden influx of spiritual consciousness, but
+rather a gradual leading up to the inevitable goal, by virtue of serious
+thought, deep study, and a high order of mentality.
+
+But that the Swedish seer received, in full measure, the blessing of cosmic
+consciousness, is beyond doubt.
+
+Swedenborg's extremely simple habits of life; his freedom from any desire
+for display, or for those social advantages into which he was born; his
+gentleness and unassuming manner, of which much is written by his
+followers, all point to him as one upon whom the blessing might readily
+descend. Swedenborg was a vegetarian, but this seems not to be a necessary
+characteristic of those possessing illumination, although, when cosmic
+consciousness shall have become almost general, vegetarianism must
+inevitably come with it, as animal life will disappear from the earth.
+
+Swedenborg, like many others who have perceived the cosmic light, evidently
+believed that he had been specially selected and consecrated for the work
+of the new church. That is, he took his illumination, not as an initiation
+into the higher degrees of cosmic truth, but as a special and personal
+revelation. This view characterizes those who founded a new, or a reformed
+religious system, while as a matter of truth, the light that comes is a
+part of the cosmic plan, and not, as Swedenborg and others imagine, as a
+personal revelation.
+
+However, Swedenborg considered himself a direct instrument in the hands of
+God, and God is alluded to as a personality. He believed that his great
+mission was to disclose the true nature of the Bible, and to prove that it
+was actually the inspired word of God, having an esoteric meaning, which
+has wrongly been interpreted to apply to the creation of a material world,
+and to its history and its people, but that when understood, it explains
+clearly, the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their relation to
+each other. It should be remembered that at the time Swedenborg wrote his
+theological works, the church had fallen into rank materialism and
+superstition. That Swedenborg should have received his illumination, or
+revelation, direct from the Lord, only serves to prove that the mortal
+consciousness clothes the revelation with whatever personality appeals to
+it, as having authority.
+
+Thus, the angel Gabriel was the dictator in the case of Mohammed, and the
+"Blessed Mother" of the Hindu reveals to them the vision of _mukti_.
+Swedenborg says of his vision: "God appeared to me and said, 'I am the Lord
+God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold
+the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures. I will myself dictate to thee
+what thou shalt write.'"
+
+In "The True Christian Religion," published shortly before his death he
+says: "Since the Lord can not manifest Himself in person as has been shown,
+and yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a new church,
+which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He is to do it, by means of a
+man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his
+understanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has
+manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me on this office, and
+that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into
+the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells and also
+to speak with spirits and angels, and this now continually for many years,
+I testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have
+not received anything that pertains to the doctrines of that church from my
+angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word."
+
+It is stated with great positiveness by Swedenborg's followers, and indeed,
+apparently by the seer himself, if we may take as authoritative, the
+translations of his works, that the revelations accorded to him covered a
+period of many years, whereas, we find in most instances of cosmic
+consciousness, the illumined ones have alluded to some specific time, as
+the great event, even while claiming that the effect of this illumination
+remains indefinitely--in fact, forms a part of a wider area of
+consciousness which is ever increasing.
+
+But when we take the numerous instances of revelations, in which the devout
+ones firmly believe that they and they alone have been accorded the vision,
+we must realize that this phenomenon is impersonal, looked at as a favor to
+any one human being. By that we mean that Illumination comes to every soul
+who has earned it, just as mathematically as the sun seems to set, after
+the earth has made its hourly journey.
+
+Perhaps this comparison is not as clear as to say: when the normal child
+has grown to manhood or womanhood, his consciousness has widened, beyond
+that of the infant; not excluding that of the infant but inclusive of all
+hitherto acquired knowledge. Without in any degree lessening the
+importance and the verity of Swedenborg's visions, it may be assumed that
+his record of these visions and their meaning has partaken more or less of
+the limitations of mortal mind.
+
+Spiritual consciousness can not be set down in terms of sense. The external
+world symbolizes spiritual truths; each interpreter must of necessity weave
+into his interpretation and attempt at finite expression of these truths,
+something of his own mortal consciousness; and this "mortal mind"
+consciousness is bound to partake of the time and age, and conditions of
+environment of the person who has experienced the revelation.
+
+Making due allowance, therefore, for the impossibility of exact expression
+of any spiritual illumination, we find in the revelation of Swedenborg
+exactly what we find in all who have attained to cosmic consciousness,
+namely, the absolute, confidential assurance of immortal life: the
+conviction that creation is under divine love and wisdom, administered by
+Cosmic Law and order, or Justice, and the final "redemption" (i.e.,
+evolution), of all men. In his "Conjugal Love," Swedenborg touches upon the
+premise which we declare, as the foundation of all cosmic consciousness,
+namely the attainment of spiritual union with the "mate" which we believe
+to be inseparable from all creation; the reunited principle which we see
+expressed in the male and female, whether in plant, bird, animal, man, or
+angel; the "twain made one" which Jesus declared would be the sign manual
+of the coming of his kingdom; that is, the coming of cosmic
+consciousness--the kingdom of pure and perfect love upon earth as it is in
+the heavens.
+
+In Corinthians (11: 12) we read:
+
+"For as the woman is of the man so is the man also of the woman; for the
+woman is not without the man, nor the man without the woman _in the Lord_."
+
+Which is to say, that in the attainment of cosmic consciousness (_in the
+Lord_), the "twain are made one," and immortality (i.e., immunity from
+reincarnation) is gained, because of this union. God is a bi-sexual Being.
+This fact is evidenced throughout all creation. To attain to immortality
+is to become as God. In this day and age of the world we have come into a
+realization of the Father-Mother idea of godhood, clearly and literally
+signifying the coming consciousness which is bi-sexual; male and female;
+perfect counterparts, or complements and through which alone, this earth
+can be made a "fit dwelling place for gods." This, too, is the message of
+the great seer Swedenborg, as it relates to love, as it is, when rightly
+understood and interpreted, of all who have felt the blessing of
+perfection, as exemplified in Illumination.
+
+The fundamental points of Swedenborg's doctrine agree with those of all
+other Illumined ones, who have founded a system of worship; a "Way of
+Illumination" it may be called; or in whose name such systems have been
+formed. That is, he testified to:
+
+A conviction of immortality;
+
+A realization of absolute justice, whereby all souls shall finally come
+into cosmic consciousness.
+
+An actual time when Christ (the cosmic illumination) shall come to earth.
+
+A great and abiding love for and patience with the frailties of his
+sense-conscious fellow-beings;
+
+A transcendent desire to bestow upon all men, the blessing of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+Few if any, have ever attained a full and complete realization of cosmic
+consciousness and remained in the physical body.
+
+Those who have attained and retained the highest degree of this glimpse of
+the Paradise of the gods, find it practically impossible to describe or
+explain the sensations experienced, even though they are more convinced of
+the truth and the reality of this realm than of anything in the merely
+sense-conscious life.
+
+Lastly, let us not lose sight of the all-important fact that no one system,
+creed, philosophy, or way of Illumination will answer for all types and
+degrees of men. "All things work together for good" to those who have the
+keenness of vision which precedes the full attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, as well as to those who have grasped its full significance.
+
+The characteristic evidence of the potentiality of the present era of the
+world, is preeminently that of a desire for unity.
+
+This desire is expressed in all the avenues of external life; its inner
+meaning is obscured by commercialism and self-interest, as in trusts and
+labor unions, but it is there nevertheless--the symbol of the inner urge
+toward unity in consciousness.
+
+It is found in efforts at Communism, and in allied reform movements. It is
+particularly evident in the breaking down of church prejudices. In these
+days a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi find it not only expedient but
+mutually helpful, to unite in the work of municipal reform; in the
+abolition of child labor; in all things that will bring a better state of
+existence into daily human life.
+
+The business man uses the phrase "let us get together on this" without
+knowing that he is expressing in terms of sense-consciousness, the urge of
+his own and his fellow beings' inner mind, which senses the fact of our
+unescapable Brotherhood.
+
+All religious systems then, are good, as are all systems of philosophy.
+They are good because they are an attempt at bringing into the perspective
+of the mortal mind the reality of the soul and the soul life; the rule of
+the spiritually conscious ego over the physical body in order that we may
+now, in our present incarnation, claim immortality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
+BALZAC
+
+
+Passing over the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus,
+Plotinus, Marcus Aurelius, Pascal, Socrates, Plato, Aspasia, and others,
+all of whom had glimpsed, if not fully attained, cosmic consciousness, we
+come to a consideration of those cases in our own day and age, in which
+this superior consciousness has found expression through intellectual
+rather than through religious channels.
+
+Of these latter, no more illustrious example can be cited than that of
+Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord.
+
+Emerson's nature was essentially religious, but his religion was not of the
+emotional quality so often found among enthusiasts, and which is almost
+always openly expressed when this religious enthusiasm is not balanced by
+intellectuality.
+
+Analysis is frequently a foe to inspiration, but there are fare instances
+where the intellect is of such a penetrating and extraordinary quality that
+it carries the power of analysis into the unseen; in fact what we
+habitually term the unseen is a part of the visible to this type of mind.
+True intellect is a natural inheritance, a karmic attribute. The spurious
+kind is the result of education, and it invariably has its limitations. It
+stops short of the finer vibrations of consciousness and denies the reality
+of the inner life of man--which inner life constitutes the _real_ to the
+character of intellect that penetrates beyond _maya_.
+
+Of such a quality of intellect is that exemplified in Emerson. No mere
+tabulator of facts was he, but a dissector of the causes back of all the
+manifestation which he observed and studied and classified with the mental
+power of a god.
+
+Nor is there lacking ample proof that Emerson experienced the phenomenon of
+the suddenness of cosmic consciousness--a degree of which he seems to have
+possessed from earliest youth.
+
+In his essay on Nature, we find these words:
+
+"Crossing a bare common in snow puddles at twilight, under a clouded sky,
+without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I
+have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear."
+
+Emerson here alluded to a feeling of fear, which seems to have been
+experienced during a certain stage by many of those who have entered into
+cosmic consciousness. This fear is doubtless due to the presence in the
+human organism of what we may term the "animal instinct," which is an
+inheritance of the physical body. This same peculiar phenomenon oppresses
+almost everyone when coming into contact with a new and hitherto untried
+force.
+
+A certain lady, who relates her experience in entering into the cosmic
+conscious state, says: "A certain part of me was unafraid, certain, secure
+and content, at the same time my mortal consciousness felt an almost
+overwhelming sense of fear."
+
+Continuing, Emerson says:
+
+"All mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I
+see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am
+part or particle of God."
+
+Emerson's powerful intellect would naturally describe such an experience
+in intellectual terms rather than, as in the instances heretofore recorded,
+in religious phraseology, but it must not be inferred that Emerson was less
+religious, in the true sense, than was Mohammed or St. Paul.
+
+Emerson lived in an age when orthodoxy flourished, and he and his
+associates of the Transcendentalist cult, were regarded as non-religious,
+if not actually heretical. Therefore, it is that Emerson's keen intellect
+was brought to bear upon everything he encountered, not only in his own
+intimate experience but also in all that he read and heard, lest he be
+trapped into committing the error which he saw all about him, namely, of
+mistaking an accepted viewpoint as an article of actual faith. His way to
+the Great Light lay through the jungle of the mind, but he found the path
+clear and plain and he left a torchlight along the way.
+
+Emerson fully recognized the illusory character of external life, and the
+eternal verity of the soul, as witness:
+
+  "If the red slayer thinks he slays,
+    Or if the slain thinks he is slain,
+  They know not well, the subtle ways,
+    I keep and pass and turn again."
+
+Horrible as is war, because of the spirit of hate and destruction it
+embodies and keeps alive, yet the fact remains that man in his soul knows
+that he can neither slay nor be slain by the mere act of destroying the
+physical shell called the body. It is inconceivable that human beings would
+lend themselves to warfare, if they did not know, as a part of that area of
+supra-consciousness, that there is a _something_ over which bullets have no
+power.
+
+This fact, regarded as a more or less vague _belief_ to the majority,
+becomes incontrovertible fact to the person who has entered cosmic
+consciousness. His view is reversed, and where he formerly looked from the
+sense-conscious plane forward into a _possible_ spiritual plane, he now
+gazes back over the path from the spiritual heights and sees the winding
+road that led upward to the elevation, much as a traveller on the mountain
+top looks back and for the first time sees all of the devious trail over
+which he has, climbed to his present vantage point. During the journey
+there had been many times when he could only see the next step ahead, and
+nothing but his faith in the assurance of his fellow men who had attained
+the summit of that mountain, could ever have sustained him through the
+perils of the climb, but once on the heights, his backward view takes in
+the details of the journey and sees not "through a glass darkly," but in
+the clear light of achievement.
+
+Such is the effect of cosmic consciousness to the one who has seen the
+light.
+
+"One of the benefits of a college education," says Emerson, "is to show the
+boy its little avail."
+
+Does this imply that an unlettered mind is desirable? Not necessarily, but
+there is a phase of intellectual culture that is detrimental while it
+lasts.
+
+It is as though one were to choke up a perfectly flowing stream which
+yielded the moisture to fertile lands, by filling the bed of the stream
+with rocks and sticks.
+
+The flow of the spiritual currents becomes clogged by the activities of the
+mind in its acquisition of mere knowledge, and before that knowledge has
+been turned into wisdom. The same truth is expressed in the aphorism "a
+little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It is dangerous because it chains
+the mind to the external things of life, whereas the totally unlettered (we
+do not use the term ignorant here) person will, if he have his heart filled
+with love, perceive the reality of spiritual things that transcend mere
+knowledge of the physical universe.
+
+Beyond this plane of mortal mind-consciousness, which is fitly described as
+"dangerous," there is the wide open area of cosmic _perception_, which may
+lead ultimately to the limitless areas of cosmic consciousness. If,
+therefore, an education, whether acquired in or out of college, so whets
+the grain of the mind that it becomes keen and fine enough to realize that
+knowledge is valuable _ONLY_ as it leads to real wisdom, then indeed it is
+a benefit; unless it does this, it is temporarily an obstruction.
+
+Out of the lower into the higher vibration; out of sense-consciousness into
+cosmic consciousness; out of organization and limitations into freedom--the
+freedom of perfection, is the law and the purpose. This Emerson with his
+clearness of spiritual vision, saw, and this premise he subjected to the
+microscopic lens of his penetrating intellect. In his essay on Fate he
+says:
+
+"Fate involves amelioration. No statement of the Universe can have any
+soundness which does not admit its ascending effort. The direction of the
+whole and of the parts is toward benefit. Behind every individual closes
+organization; before him opens liberty. * * * The Better; the Best. The
+first and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying
+out, or remain for the maturing of higher. In the latest race, in man,
+every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from
+his fellows, are certificates of advance _out of fate into freedom_."
+
+This phrase, "out of fate into freedom," may be read to mean, literally,
+out of the bondage of the sense-conscious life which entails rebirth and
+continued experience, into the light of Illumination which makes us free.
+
+Further commenting, Emerson says:
+
+"Liberation of the will from the sheaths and clogs of organization which he
+has outgrown _is the end and aim of the world_ * * * The whole circle of
+animal life--tooth against tooth, devouring war, war for food, a yelp of
+pain and a grunt of triumph, until at last the whole menagerie, the whole
+chemical mass, is mellowed and refined _for higher use_ * * *"
+
+The sense of unity which is so inseparable from the cosmic conscious
+state, was always uppermost in Emerson's mind. Neither did he ever
+present as unity that state of consciousness that may be termed
+organization-consciousness--group-consciousness it is often called. He
+realized that the person who stands for Individualism is much more than
+apt to recognize his indissoluble relationship with the Cosmos. A
+perception of unity is a complement of Individualism.
+
+That which, in modern metaphysical phraseology, is best termed "The
+Absolute," was expressed by Emerson as the Over-Soul, and this term meant
+something much greater, more unescapable than the anthropomorphic God of
+the church-goers. His assurance of unity with this Divine Spiritual Essence
+was perfect. It savors more of what is termed the religious view of life
+than of the philosophic, but we contend that in the coming era of the
+cosmic conscious man, all life will be religious, in the true sense, and
+that there will be no dividing line between philosophy and worship, because
+worship will consist of living the life of the spiritual man, and not in
+any set forms or rites. Bearing upon this we find Emerson saying:
+
+"Not thanks, not prayer, seem quite the highest or truest name for our
+communion with the infinite--but glad and conspiring reception--reception
+that becomes giving in its turn as the receiver is only the All-Giver in
+part and in infancy. I cannot--nor can any man--speak precisely of things
+so sublime, but it seems to me the wit of man, his strength, his grace, and
+his tendency, his art, is the grace and the presence of God. It is beyond
+explanation. When all is said and done, _the rapt saint is found the only
+logician._ Not exhortation nor argument becomes our lips, but paeans of joy
+and praise. But not of adulation; we are too nearly related in the deep of
+the mind to that we honor. It is God in us that checks the language of
+petition by a grander thought. In the bottom of the heart it is said, 'I am
+and by me, O child, this fair body and world of thine stands and grows; I
+am, all things are mine; and all mine are thine.'"
+
+We could quote passages from the essays ad infinitum, showing conclusively
+that the cosmic conscious plane had been attained and retained by this
+great philosopher--one of the first of the early part of the century, which
+has been prophesied as the beginning of the first faint lights of the Dawn,
+but enough has been offered for our present purpose, that of establishing
+the salient points of the cosmic conscious man or woman, which points are
+the complete assurance of the eternal verity and indestructibility of the
+soul; of its ultimate and inevitable victory over _maya_ or the "wheel of
+causation"; and the joyousness and the sense of at-one-ness with the
+universe, which comes to the illumined one, bespeaking an unquenchable
+optimism and an utter destruction of the sense of sin--points which
+characterize all who have attained to this supra-conscious state of
+Being.
+
+These points are all expressed repeatedly in all Emerson's utterances and
+mark him as one of the most illumined philosophers, as he was one of the
+greatest intellects of the last century, or of any other century.
+
+
+LEO TOLSTOI: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER
+
+A strange, lonely and wonderful figure was Tolstoi, novelist, philosopher,
+socialist, artist and reformer.
+
+Great souls are always lonely souls, estimated by sense-conscious humans.
+In the midst of the so-called pleasures and luxuries of the senses, a wise
+soul appears as barren of comfort as is a desert of foliage.
+
+Without the divine optimism that comes from soul-consciousness, such a one
+could not endure the life of the body: without the absolute assurance that
+comes with cosmic consciousness, men like the late Count Tolstoi must needs
+die of soul-loneliness.
+
+From early childhood up to the time of his Illumination Tolstoi indulged in
+seriousness of thought. Like Mohammed, great and overpowering desire to
+fathom the mystery of death took possession of him. He was ever haunted by
+an excessive dread of the "darkness of the grave," and in his essay,
+"Childhood," he describes with that wonderful realism, which characterizes
+all his works, the effect on a child's mind of seeing the face of his dead
+mother. This may be taken in a sense as biographical, although it is not
+probable that Tolstoi here alludes to the death of his own mother as she
+died when he was too young to have remembered. He describes the scene in
+the words of Irteniev:
+
+"I could not believe that this was her face. I began to look at it more
+closely, and gradually discovered in it the familiar and beloved features.
+I shuddered with fear when I became sure that it was indeed she, but why
+were the closed eyes so fallen in? Why was she so terribly pale, and why
+was there a blackish mark under the clear skin on one cheek?"
+
+A terror of death, and yet a haunting urge that compelled him to be forever
+thinking upon the mystery of it, is the dominant note in every line of
+Tolstoi's writings up to the time which he describes as "a change" that
+came over him.
+
+For example, when Count Leo was in his 33d year, his brother Nicolai died.
+Leo was present at the bedside and described the scene with the utmost
+frankness regarding its effect upon his mind; and again we note that awful
+fear and hopeless questioning which characterizes the sense-conscious man
+whose intellect has been cultivated to the very edge of the line which
+separates the self-conscious life from the cosmic conscious.
+
+This questioning, with the fear and dread and terror of death and of the
+"ceaseless round of births" and the cares and sorrows of existence was
+what drove Prince Siddhartha from his father's court and Mohammed into the
+mountains to meditate and pray until the answer came in the light of
+illumination.
+
+It came to Tolstoi through the very intensity of his powers of reason and
+analysis; through the sword-like quality of mental urge--a much more
+sorrowful path than the one through the simple way of love and service and
+prayer.
+
+His comments upon the death of his brother give us a vivid idea of the
+state of mind of the Tolstoi of that age:
+
+"Never in my life has anything had such an effect upon me. He was right
+(referring to his brother's words) when he said to me there is nothing
+worse than death, and if you remember that death is the inevitable goal of
+all that lives, then it must be confessed that there is nothing poorer than
+life. Why should we be so careful when at the end of all things nothing
+remains of what was once Nicolai Tolstoi? Suddenly he started up and
+murmured in alarm: 'What is this?' He saw that he was passing into
+nothingness."
+
+From the above it will be seen that the Tolstoi of those days was a
+materialist pure and simple. "He saw that he was passing into nothingness,"
+he said of his brother, as though there could be no question as to the
+nothingness of the individual consciousness that he had known as Nicolai,
+his brother.
+
+This soul-harrowing materialism haunted Tolstoi during all the years of his
+youth and early manhood, and threw him constantly into fits of melancholy
+and inner brooding. He could neither dismiss the subject from his mind, nor
+could he bring into the area of his mortal consciousness that serene
+contemplation and optimistic line of reasoning which marks all that Emerson
+wrote.
+
+Tolstoi's morbid horror of decay and death was not in any sense due to a
+lack of physical courage. It was the inevitable repulsion of a strong and
+robust animalism of the body, coupled with a powerful mentality--both of
+which are barriers to the "still small voice" of the soul, through which
+alone comes the conviction of the nothingness of death.
+
+A biographer says of Tolstoi:
+
+"The fit of the fear of death which at the end of the seventies brought him
+to the verge of suicide, was not the first and apparently not the last and
+at any rate not the only one. He felt something like it fifteen years
+before when his brother Nicolai died. Then he fell ill and conjectured the
+presence of the complaint that killed his brother--consumption. He had
+constant pain in his chest and side. He had to go and try to cure himself
+in the Steppe by a course of koumiss, and did actually cure himself.
+Formerly these recurrent attacks of spiritual or physical weakness were
+cured in him, not by any mental or moral upheavals, but simply by his
+vitality, its exuberance and intoxication."
+
+The birth of the new consciousness which came to Tolstoi a few years later,
+was born into existence through these terrible struggles and mental
+agonies, inevitable because of the very nature of his heredity and
+education and environment. Although as we know, he came of gentle-folk,
+there was much of the Russian peasant in Tolstoi's makeup. His organism,
+both as to physical and mental elements, was like a piece of solid iron,
+untempered by the refining processes of an inherent spirituality. His
+never-ceasing struggle for attainment of the degree of cosmic consciousness
+which he finally reached was wholly an intellectual struggle. He possessed
+such a power of analysis, such a depth of intellectual perception, that he
+must needs go on or go mad with the strain of the question unanswered.
+
+To such a mind, the admonition to "never mind about those questions; don't
+think about them," fell upon dull ears. He could no more cease thinking
+upon the mysteries of life and death than he could cease respiration. Nor
+could he blindly trust. He must _know_. Nothing is more unescapable than
+the soul's urge toward freedom--and freedom can be won only by liberation
+from the bondage of illusion.
+
+Tolstoi's friends and biographers agree that along about his forty-fifth
+year, a great moral and religious change took place. The whole trend of his
+thoughts turned from the mortal consciousness to that inner self whence
+issues the higher qualities of mankind.
+
+From a man who, although he was a great writer and a Russian nobleman, was
+yet a man like others of his kind, influenced by traditionary ideas of
+class and outward appearance; a man of conventional habits and ideas;
+Tolstoi emerged a free soul. He shook off the illusion of historical life
+and culture, and stood upon free, moral ground, estimating himself and his
+fellows by means of an insight which ignores the world's conventions and
+despises the world's standards of success. In short, Tolstoi had received
+Illumination and henceforth should he reckoned among those of the new
+birth.
+
+In his own words, written in 1879, this change is described:
+
+"Five years ago a change took place in me. I began to experience at first
+times of mental vacuity, of cessation of life, as if I did not know why I
+was to live or what I was to do. These suspensions of life always found
+expression in the same problem, 'Why am I here?' and then 'What next?' I
+had lived and lived and gone on and on till I had drawn near a precipice; I
+saw clearly that before me there lay nothing but destruction. With all my
+might I endeavored to escape from this life. And suddenly I, a happy man,
+began to hide my bootlaces that I might not hang myself between the
+wardrobes in my room when undressing at night; and ceased to take a gun
+with me out shooting, so as to avoid temptation by these two means of
+freeing myself from this life. * * *
+
+"I lived in this way (that is to say, in communion with the people) for two
+years; and a change took place in me. What befell me was that the life of
+our class--the wealthy and cultured--not only became repulsive to me, but
+lost all significance. All our actions, our judgments, science, and art
+itself, appeared to me in a new light. I realized that it was all
+self-indulgence, and that it was useless to look for any meaning in it. I
+hated myself and acknowledged the truth. Now it had all become clear to
+me."
+
+From this time on, Tolstoi's life was that of one who had entered into
+cosmic consciousness, as we note the effects in others. Desire for solitude
+a taste for the simple, natural things of life, possessed him. The
+primitive peasants and their coarse but wholesome food appealed to him. It
+was not a penance that Tolstoi imposed upon himself, that caused him to
+abandon the life of a country gentleman for that of a hut in the woods.
+The penance would come to such a one from enforced living in the glare of
+the world's artificialities. Cosmic consciousness bestows above all things
+a taste for simplicity; it restores the normal condition of mankind, the
+intimacy with nature and the feeling of kinship with nature-children.
+
+It is not our purpose here to enter into any detailed biography of these
+instances of cosmic consciousness. The point we wish to make is the fact
+that the birth of this new consciousness frequently comes through much
+mental travail and agonies of doubt, speculation and questioning; but that
+it is worth the price paid, however seemingly great, there can be no
+possible distrust.
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC
+
+Balzac should head this chapter, if we were considering these philosophers
+in chronological order, as Balzac was born in 1799, preceding Emerson by a
+matter of four years. But Balzac's peculiar temperament, might almost be
+classed as a religious rather than strictly intellectual example of cosmic
+consciousness. Of the latter phase or expression of this "new" sense, as
+present-day writers frequently call it, Emerson is the most perfect
+example, because he was the most balanced; the most literary, in the
+strict interpretation of the word.
+
+Balzac's place in literature is due far more to his wonderful spiritual
+insight, and his powerful imagination, than to his intellectuality, or to
+literary style. But that he was an almost complete case of cosmic
+consciousness is evident in all he wrote and in all he did. His life was
+absolutely consistent with the cosmic conscious man, living in a world
+where the race consciousness has not yet risen to the heights of the
+spiritually conscious life.
+
+Bucke comments upon his decision against the state of matrimony, because,
+as Balzac himself declared, it would be an obstacle to the perfectibility
+of his interior senses, and to his flight through the spiritual worlds, and
+says: "When we consider the antagonistic attitude of so many of the great
+cases toward this relation (Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Whitman, etc.), there
+seems little doubt that anything like general possession of cosmic
+consciousness must abolish marriage as we know it to-day."
+
+Balzac explains this seeming aversion to the marriage state _as we know it
+to-day_, in his two books, written during his early thirties, namely, Louis
+Lambert and Seraphita. "Louis Lambert" is regarded as in the nature of an
+autobiography, since Balzac, like his mouthpiece, Louis, viewed everything
+from an inner sense--from intuition, or the soul faculties, rather than
+from the standard of mere intellectual observation, analysis and synthesis.
+This inner sense, so real and so thoroughly understandable to those
+possessing it, is almost, if not quite, impossible of description to the
+complete comprehension of those who have no intimate relationship with this
+inner vision. To the person who views life from the inner sense, the soul
+sense (which is the approach to, and is included in, cosmic consciousness),
+the external or physical life is like a mirror reflecting, more or less
+inaccurately, the reality--the soul is the gazer, and the visible life is
+what he sees.
+
+Balzac expresses this view in all he says and does. "All we are is in the
+soul," he says, and the perfection or the imperfection of what we
+externalize, depends upon the development of the soul.
+
+It is this marvelously developed inner vision that makes marriage, on the
+sense-conscious plane, which is the plane upon which we know marriage as it
+is to-day, objectionable to Balzac.
+
+His spirit had already united with its spiritual counterpart, and his soul
+sought the embodiment of that union in the flesh. This he did not find in
+the perfection and completeness which from his inner view he knew to exist.
+
+Barriers of caste, or class; of time and space; of age; of race and color;
+of condition; may intervene between counterparts on the physical plane;
+nay, one may be manifesting in the physical body and the other have
+abandoned the body, but as there is neither time nor space nor condition to
+the spirit, this union may have been sought and found, and _reflected to_
+the mortal consciousness, in which case marriage with anything less than
+the _one_ true counterpart would be unsatisfactory, if not altogether
+objectionable.
+
+With this view in mind, Seraphita becomes as lucid a bit of reading as
+anything to be found in literature.
+
+Seraphita is the perfected being--the god into which man is developing, or
+more properly speaking, _unfolding_, since man must unfold into that from
+which he started, but with consciousness added.
+
+Everywhere, in ancient and modern mysticism, we find the assumption that
+God is dual--male and female. The old Hebrew word for God is
+plural--Elohim.
+
+Humankind invariably and persistently, even though half-mockingly, alludes
+to man and wife as "one"; and men and women speak of each other, when
+married, as "my other half."
+
+That which persists has a basis in fact, and symbolizes the perfect type.
+What we know of marriage as it is to-day, proves to us beyond the shadow of
+a doubt, that the man-made institution of marriage does not make man and
+woman one, nor insure that two halves of the same whole are united. The
+highest type of men and women to-day are at best but half-gods, but these
+are prophecies of the future race, "the man-god whom we await" as Emerson
+puts it. But that which we await is the man-woman-god, the Perfected Being,
+of whom Balzac writes in Seraphita.
+
+It has been said that Madame Hanska, whom the author finally married only
+six months previous to his death, was the original of Seraphita, but it
+would seem that this great affection, tender and enduring as it was,
+partook far more of a beautiful friendship between two souls who knew and
+understood each other's needs, than it did of that blissful and ecstatic
+union of counterparts, which everywhere is described by those who have
+experienced it, as a sensation of _melting or merging into_ the other's
+being.
+
+Seraphita is the embodiment, in human form, of the _idea_ expressed in the
+world-old belief in a perfected being; whose perfection was complete when
+the two halves of the _one_ should have found each other.
+
+The inference is very generally made that Balzac believed in and sought to
+express the idea of a bi-sexual individual--a _personality_ who is complete
+in himself or herself _as a person_; one in which the intuitive, feminine
+principle and the reasoning, masculine principle had become perfectly
+balanced--in short, an androgynous human.
+
+This idea is apparently further substantiated by the fact that Seraphita
+was loved by Minna, a beautiful young girl to whom Seraphita was always
+Seraphitus, an ideal lover; and by Wilfrid, to whom Seraphita represented
+his ideal of feminine loveliness, both in mind and body; a young girl
+possessing marvelous, almost miraculous, wisdom, but yet a woman with
+human passions and human virtues--his ideal of wifehood and motherhood.
+
+But whatever the idea that Balzac intended to convey, whether, as is
+generally believed, Seraphita was an androgynous being, or whether she
+symbolized the perfection of soul-union, our contention is that this union
+is not a creation of the imagination, but the accomplishment of the plan of
+creation--the final goal of earthly pilgrimage; the raison d'etre of love
+itself.
+
+One argument against the idea that Seraphita was intended to illustrate an
+androgynous being, rather than a perfected human, who had her spiritual
+mate, is found in the words in which she refused to marry Wilfrid, although
+Balzac makes it plainly evident that she was attracted to Wilfrid with a
+degree of sense-attraction, due to the fact that she was still living
+within the environment of the physical, and therefore subject to the
+illusions of the mortal, even while her spiritual consciousness was so
+fully developed as to enable her to perceive and realize the difference
+between an attraction that was based largely upon sense, and that which was
+of the soul.
+
+Wilfrid says to her:
+
+"Have you no soul that you are not seduced by the prospect of consoling a
+great man, who will sacrifice all to live with you in a little house by the
+border of a lake?"
+
+"But," answers Seraphita, "I am loved with a love without bounds."
+
+And when Wilfrid with insane anger and jealousy asked who it was whom
+Seraphita loved and who loved her, she answered "God."
+
+At another time, when Minna, to whom she had often spoken in veiled terms
+of a mysterious being who loved her and whom she loved, asked her who this
+person was, she answered:
+
+"I can love nothing here on earth."
+
+"What dost thou love then?" asked Minna.
+
+"Heaven" was the reply.
+
+This obscurity and uncertainty as to what manner of love it was that
+absorbed Seraphita, and who was the object of it, could not have been
+possible had it been the usual devotion of the _religeuse_.
+
+Seraphita, whose consciousness extended far beyond that of the people about
+her, could not have explained to her friends that the invisible realms were
+as real to her as the visible universe was to those with only
+sense-consciousness. It was impossible to explain to them that she had
+found and knew her mate, even though she had not met him in the physical
+body.
+
+To Wilfrid she said she loved "God." To Minna she used the term "Heaven,"
+and when Minna questioned: "But art thou worthy of heaven when thou
+despisest the creatures of God?" Seraphita answered:
+
+"Couldst thou love two beings at once? Would a lover be a lover if he did
+not fill the heart? Should he not be the first, the last, the only one? She
+who loves will she not quit the world for her lover? Her entire family
+becomes a memory; she has no longer a relative. The lover! she has given
+him her whole soul. If she has kept a fraction of it, she does not love. To
+love feebly, is that to love? The word of the lover makes all her joy, and
+quivers in her veins like a purple deeper than blood; his glance is a light
+which penetrates her; she dissolves in him; there, where he is, all is
+beautiful; he is warmth to the soul: he irradiates everything; near him
+could one know cold or night? He is never absent; he is ever within us; we
+think in him, to him, for him. Minna, that is the-way I love."
+
+And when Minna, like Wilfrid, "seized by a devouring jealousy," demanded to
+know "whom?" Seraphita answered, "God." This she did because the one whom
+she loved became her God. We are told that "love makes gods of men."
+Perfect love, the love of those who are spiritual-mates--soul-mates--the
+"man-woman-god whom we await," becomes an immortal: and immortals are gods.
+
+Moreover if Seraphita had intended to teach the love of the religious
+devotee to The Absolute instead of a perfected sex-love, she would not have
+pointed out to both Wilfrid and Minna that which she, in her superior
+vision, her supra-consciousness, perceived, namely, that Wilfrid and Minna
+were really intended for spiritual mates, and that what they each saw in
+her was really a prophecy of their own perfected and spiritualized love.
+
+The subject is one that is positively incomprehensible and unexplainable to
+the average mind. All mystic literature, when read with the eyes of
+understanding, exalts and spiritualizes sex. The latter day degeneration of
+sex is the "trail of the serpent," which Woman is to crush with her heel.
+And Woman is crushing it to-day, although to the superficial observer, who
+sees only surface conditions, it would appear as though Woman had fallen
+from her high estate, to take her place on a footing with man. This view is
+the exoteric, and not the esoteric, one.
+
+They who have ears hear the inner voice, and they who have eyes see with
+the inner sight. The mystery of sex is the eternal mystery which each must
+solve for himself before he can comprehend it, and when solved eliminates
+all sense of sin and shame; brings Illumination in which everything is made
+clear and makes man-woman immortal--_a_ god.
+
+Swedenborg's theory of Heaven as a never-ending honeymoon in which
+spiritually-mated humans dwell, has been denounced by many as "shocking" to
+a refined and sensitive mind. But this idea is shocking only because even
+the most advanced minds are seldom Illumined, their advancement being along
+the lines of intellectual research and _acquired knowledge_, which, as we
+have previously explained, is not synonymous with _interior wisdom_.
+
+The illumined mind is bound to find in the eternal and ever-present fact of
+sex, the key to the mysteries--the password to immortal godhood.
+
+The subject is one that cannot be set forth in printed words; this fact is,
+indeed, the very Plan of Illumination. It cannot be _taught_. It must be
+_found_. Only those who have glimpsed its truth can even imperfectly point
+the way in which it _may_ be discovered. No teacher can guarantee it. It is
+the most evanescent, the most delicate, the most indescribable thing in the
+Cosmos. It is therefore the most readily misinterpreted and misunderstood.
+
+Balzac doubtless understood, not as a matter of perception of a truth but
+as an experience, and this fact, if no other, marks him as one having a
+very high degree of cosmic consciousness.
+
+Seraphita called herself a "Specialist." When Minna inquired how it was
+that Seraphitus could read the souls of men, the answer was:
+
+"I have the gift of Specialism. Specialism is an inward sight that can
+penetrate all things; you will understand its full meaning only through
+comparison. In the great cities of Europe works are produced by which the
+human hand seeks to represent the effects of the moral nature as well as
+those of the physical nature, as well as those of the ideas in marble. The
+sculptor acts on the stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into
+it. There are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of
+representing the whole noble side of humanity, or the evil side of it; most
+men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few older men, a
+little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the thoughts
+expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of art are of the
+same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work the whole universe of
+thought. Such persons are in themselves the principles of art; they bear
+within them a mirror which reflects nature in her slightest manifestations.
+Well, so it is with me; I have within me a mirror before which the moral
+nature, with its causes and its effects, appears and is reflected. Entering
+thus into the consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future
+and the past * * * though what I have said does not define the gift of
+Specialism, for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it."
+
+This describes in terms similar to those employed by others who possess
+cosmic consciousness, the results of this inner light, which Seraphita
+calls a "mirror."
+
+And yet, with this seemingly exhaustive and lucid exposition of the effects
+of Illumination, Seraphita declares that "to conceive the nature of this
+gift we must possess it."
+
+Balzac further comments upon what he terms this gift of Specialism, which
+is cosmic consciousness or illumination, thus:
+
+"The specialist is necessarily the loftiest expression of man--the link
+which connects the visible to the superior worlds. He acts, he sees, he
+feels through his _inner being_. The abstractive _thinks_. The instinctive
+simply _acts_. Hence three degrees for man. As an instinctive he is below
+the level; as an abstractive he attains it; as a specialist he rises above
+it. Specialism opens to man his true career; the Infinite dawns upon
+him--he catches a glimpse of his destiny."
+
+The merely sense-conscious man is the man-animal; the abstractive man is
+the average man and woman in the world to-day--the human who is evolving
+out of the mental into the spiritual consciousness. The specialist is the
+cosmic conscious one, the one who "catches a glimpse of his destiny."
+
+Balzac, in company with all who attain cosmic consciousness, had a great
+capacity for suffering; and this soul-loneliness became crystalized into
+spiritual wisdom, which he expressed in the words and in the manner most
+likely to be accepted by the world.
+
+How else can that divine union to which we are heirs and for which we are
+either blindly, consciously, or supra-consciously, striving, be described
+and exploited without danger of defilement and degeneracy, save and except
+by the phrase "unity with God"?
+
+All mystics have found it necessary to veil the "secret of secrets," lest
+the unworthy (because _unready_) defile it with his gaze, even as the
+sinful devotee prostrates himself hiding his face, while the priest raises
+the chalice containing the holy eucharist in the ceremony of the mass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT
+
+
+Poetry is the natural language of cosmic consciousness. "The music of the
+spheres" is a literal expression, as all who have ever _glimpsed_ the
+beauties of the spiritual realms will testify.
+
+"Poets are the trumpets which sing to battle. Poets are the unacknowledged
+legislators of the world," said Shelley.
+
+Not that all poets are aware, in their mortal consciousness, of their
+divine mission, or of their spiritual glimpses.
+
+The outer mind, the mortal or carnal mind--that part of our organism whose
+office it is to take care of the physical body, for its preservation and
+its well-being, may be so dominant as, to hold in bondage the _atman_, but
+it can not utterly silence its voice.
+
+Thus the true poet is also a seer; a prophet; a spiritually-conscious
+being, for such time, or during such phases of inspiration, as he becomes
+imbued with the spirit of poetry.
+
+A person who writes rhymes is not necessarily a poet. So, too, there are
+poets who do not express their inspirations according to the rules of metre
+and syntax.
+
+Between that which Balzac tabulated as the "abstractive" type of human
+evolvement and that which is fully cosmic in consciousness, there are many
+and diverse degrees of the higher faculties; but the poet always expresses
+some one of these degrees of the higher consciousness; indeed some poets
+are of that versatile nature that they run the entire gamut of the
+emotional nature, now descending to the ordinary normal consciousness which
+takes account only of the personal self; again ascending to the heights of
+the impersonal fearlessness and unassailable confidence that is the
+heritage of those who have reached the full stature of the "man-god whom we
+await"--the cosmic conscious race that is to be.
+
+All commentators upon modern instances of Illumination unite in regarding
+Walt Whitman as one of the most, if not _the most_, perfect example of whom
+we have any record of cosmic consciousness and its sublime effects upon the
+character and personality of the illumined one.
+
+Whitman is a sublime type for reasons which are of first importance in
+their relation to character as viewed from the ideals of the cosmic
+conscious race-to-be.
+
+Moralists have criticized Whitman as immoral; religionists have deplored
+his lack of a religious creed; literary critics have denied his claim to
+high rank in the world of literature; but Walt Whitman is unquestionably
+without a peer in the roundness of his genius; in the simplicity of his
+soul; in the catholicity of his sympathy; in the perfect poise and
+self-control and imperturbability of his kindness. His biographers agree as
+to his never-failing good nature. He was without any of those fits of
+unrest and temperamental eccentricities which are supposed to be the "sign
+manual" of the child of the poetic muse.
+
+In Whitman it would seem that all those petty prejudices against any
+nationality or class of men, were entirely absent. He exalted the
+common-place, not as a pose, nor because he had given himself to that task,
+but because to him there was no common-place. In the cosmic perception of
+the universe, everything is exalted to the plane of _fitness_. As to the
+pure all things are pure, so to the one who is steeped in the sublimity
+of Divine Illumination, there is no high or low, no good or bad, no white
+or black, or rich or poor; all--all is a part of the plan, and, in its
+place in cosmic evolution, it _fits_.
+
+Whitman cries:
+
+"All! all! Let others ignore what they may, I make the poem of evil also, I
+commemorate that part also; I am myself just as much evil as good, and my
+nation is, and I say there, is in fact no evil."
+
+Compared to the religious aspect of cosmic consciousness in which, previous
+to the time of Illumination, the devotee had striven to rise to spiritual
+heights through disdaining the flesh, this note of Whitman's is a new
+note--the nothingness of evil as such; the righteousness of the flesh and
+the holiness of earthly, or human, love, bespeaks the prophet of the New
+Dispensation; the time hinted of by Jesus, the Master, when he said, "when
+the twain shall be one and the outside as the inside," as a sign and symbol
+of the blessed time to come when the kingdom he spoke of (not his personal
+kingdom, but the kingdom which he represented, the kingdom of Love), should
+come upon earth.
+
+Whitman's illumination is essentially poetic; not that it is not also
+intellectual and moral; but after his experience--at least an experience
+more notable than any hitherto recorded by him, in or about his
+thirty-fifth year--we find his conversation invariably reflecting the
+beauty and poetical imagery of his mind. He may be said to have lived and
+moved and had his being in a state of blissful unconsciousness of anything
+unclean or impure, or unnatural.
+
+This absence of _consciousness of evil_ is in no wise synonymous with a
+type of person who _exalts_ his undeveloped animal tendencies under the
+guise of liberation from a sense of sin. Neither is this discrimination
+easy of attainment to any but those who _realize_ in their own hearts the
+very distinct difference between the nothingness of sin and the pretended
+acceptance of perversions as purity.
+
+While we are on this point we must again emphasize the truth that cosmic
+consciousness cannot be gained by prescription; there is no royal road to
+_mukti_. Liberation from the lower _manas_ can not be bought or sold, it
+can not be explained or comprehended, save by those to whom the attainment
+of such a state is at least _possible_ if not _probable_.
+
+Illustrative of his sense of unity with all life (one of the most salient
+characteristics of the fully cosmic conscious man), are these lines of
+Whitman's:
+
+  "Voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure;
+  Hurrying with the modern crowd, as eager and fickle as any;
+  Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him;
+  Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long
+      while;
+  Walking the hills of Judea, with the beautiful gentle God by my side;
+  Speeding through space--speeding through Heaven and the stars."
+
+Oriental mysticism tells us that one of the attributes of the liberated one
+is the power to read the hearts and souls of all men; to feel what they
+feel; and to so unite with them in consciousness that we _are_ for the time
+being the very person or thing we contemplate. If this be indeed the test
+of godhood, Whitman expresses it in every line:
+
+  "The disdain and calmness of olden martyrs;
+  The mother condemned for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children
+      gazing on;
+  The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing,
+      covered with sweat;
+  The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck--the murderous
+      buckshot and the bullets;
+  All these I feel, or am."
+
+Seeking to express the sense of knowing and especially of _feeling_, and
+the bigness and broadness of life, the scorn of petty aims and strife; in
+short, that interior perception which Illumination brings, he says:
+
+  "Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? have you reckoned the earth
+      much?
+  Have you practised so long to learn to read?
+  Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
+  Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all
+      poems;
+  You shall possess the good of the earth and sun--there are millions of
+      suns left;
+  You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
+      the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books;
+  You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me;
+  You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.
+  I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and
+      the end;
+  But I do not talk of the beginning nor the end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "There was never any more inception than there is now;
+  Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
+  And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
+  Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."
+
+A perception of eternity as an ever-present reality is one of the
+characteristic signs of the inception of the new birth.
+
+Birth and death become nothing more nor yet less, than events in the
+procedure of eternal life; age becomes merely a graduation garment; God
+and heaven are not separated from us by any reality; they become every-day
+facts.
+
+Whitman tells of the annihilation of any sense of separateness from his
+soul side, in the following words:
+
+  "Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my
+      soul."
+
+He did not confound his mortal consciousness, the lower _manas_, with the
+higher--the soul; neither did he recognize an impassable gulf between them.
+
+While admittedly ascending to the higher consciousness from the lower,
+Whitman refused to follow the example of the saints and sages of old, and
+mortify or despise the lower self--the manifestation. He had indeed _struck
+the balance_; he recognized his dual nature, each in its rightful place and
+with its rightful possessions, and refused to abase either "I am" to the
+other. He literally "rendered unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," by
+claiming for the flesh the purity and the cleanliness of God's handiwork.
+
+In Whitman, too, we find an almost perfect realization of immortality and
+of blissfulness of life and the complete harmony and unity of his soul with
+_all there is_. Following closely upon the experience that seems to have
+been the most vivid of the many instances of illumination which he enjoyed
+throughout a long life, he wrote the following lines, indicative of the
+emotions immediately associated with the influx of illumination:
+
+  "Swiftly arose and spread around me, the peace and joy and knowledge that
+      pass all the art and argument of earth;
+  And I know that the hand of God is the elder hand of my own,
+  And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
+  And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my
+      sisters and lovers,
+  And that a kelson of creation is love."
+
+In lines written in 1860, about seven years after the first vivid instance
+of the experience of illumination which afterward became oft-recurrent,
+Whitman speaks of what he calls "Perfections," and from what he writes we
+may assume that he referred to those possessing cosmic consciousness, and
+the practical impossibility of describing this peculiarity and accounting
+for the alteration it makes in character and outlook.
+
+Says Whitman:
+
+  "Only themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves,
+  As souls only understand souls."
+
+It has been pointed out that Whitman more perfectly illustrates the type of
+the coming man--the cosmic conscious race, because Whitman's illumination
+seems to have come without the terrible agonies of doubt and prayer and
+mortification of the flesh, which characterize so many of those saints and
+sages of whom we read in sacred literature. But it must not be inferred
+from this that Whitman's life was devoid of suffering.
+
+A biographer says of him:
+
+"He has loved the earth, sun, animals; despised riches, given alms to every
+one that asked; stood up for the stupid and crazy; devoted his income and
+labor to others; according to the command of the divine voice; and was
+impelled by the divine impulse; and now for reward he is poor, despised,
+sick, paralyzed, neglected, dying. His message to men, to the delivery of
+which he devoted his life, which has been dearer in his eyes (for man's
+sake) than wife, children, life itself, is unread, or scoffed and jeered
+at. What shall he say to God? He says that God knows him through and
+through, and that he is willing to leave himself in God's hands."
+
+But above and beyond all this, is the sense of oneness with all who suffer
+which is ever a heritage of the cosmic conscious one, even while he is, at
+the same time, the recipient of states of bliss and certainty of
+immortality, and melting soul-love, incomprehensible and indescribable to
+the non-initiate. Whitman's calm and poise was not that of the
+ice-encrusted egotist. It is the poise of the perfectly balanced man-god
+equally aware of his human and his divine attributes; and justly estimating
+both; nor drawing too fine a line between.
+
+  "I embody all presence outlawed or suffering;
+  See myself in prison, shaped like another man,
+  And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch;
+  It is I left out in the morning, and barr'd at night.
+  Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to jail, but I am handcuffed and walk by
+      his side;
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too, and am tried and
+      sentenced.
+  Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last
+      gasp;
+  My face is ash-colored--my sinews gnarl--away from me people retreat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them;
+  I project my hat, sit shame-faced and beg."
+
+If any one imagines that Whitman was not a religious man, let him read the
+following:
+
+  "I say that no man has ever yet been half devout enough;
+  None has ever yet adored or worshipped half enough;
+  None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the
+      future is."
+
+There is a sublime confidence and worship in these words which belittles
+the churchman's hope and prayer that God may be good to him and bless him
+with a future life. Whitman's philosophy, less specific as to method, is
+assuredly more certain, more faithful in effect. Whitman had the experience
+of being immersed in a sea of light and love, so frequently a phenomenon
+of Illumination; he retained throughout all his life a complete and perfect
+assurance of immortality.
+
+His sense of union with and relationship to all living things was as much a
+part of him as the color of his eyes and hair; he did not have to remind
+himself of it, as a religious duty.
+
+He experienced a keen joy in nature and in the innocent, childlike
+pleasures of everyday things, and at the same time possessed a splendid
+intellect.
+
+All consciousness of sin or evil had been erased from his mind and actually
+had no place in his life.
+
+
+ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
+
+In the case of Lord Tennyson, we have a definite recognition of two
+distinct states of consciousness, finally culminating in a clear experience
+of cosmic consciousness; this experience was so positive as to leave no
+doubt or indecision in his mind regarding the reality of the spiritual, and
+the illusory character of the external life.
+
+In truth Tennyson had so fixed his consciousness in the spiritual rather
+than in the external, that he looked out from that inner self, as through
+the windows of a house; he was prepared, as he said, to believe that his
+body was but an imaginary symbol of himself, but nothing and no one could
+persuade him that the real Tennyson, the _I am_ consciousness of being
+which was he, was other than spiritual, eternal, undying.
+
+Like so many others, notably Whitman, who have realized a more or less full
+degree of cosmic consciousness, Tennyson was deeply and reverently
+religious, although not partisanly connected with church work. Tennyson's
+early boyhood was marked by experiences which usually befall persons of the
+psychic temperament. As he himself described these states of consciousness,
+they were moments in which the ego transcended the limits of self
+consciousness and entered the limitless realm of spirit.
+
+They do not tabulate with the ordinary trance condition of the
+spiritualistic medium, who subjects his own self consciousness to a
+"control," although Tennyson always believed that the best of his writings
+were inspired by, and written under "the direct influence of higher
+intelligences, of whose presence he was distinctly conscious. He felt them
+near him and his mind was impressed by their ideas."
+
+The point which we emphasize is that these peculiar states of consciousness
+are not synonymous with the western idea of trance as seen in mediumship,
+although Tennyson uses the term "trance" in describing them.
+
+He says:
+
+"A kind of walking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood,
+when I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating
+my own name to myself silently until all at once, as it were, out of the
+intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself
+seemed to dissolve and fade into boundless being."
+
+It is a fact that children of a peculiarly sensitive or psychic temperament
+seem to have strange ideas regarding the name by which they are called, and
+not infrequently become confused and filled with an inexplicable wonderment
+at the sound of their own name. This phenomenon is much less rare than is
+generally known.
+
+In Tennyson's "Ancient Sage" this experience of entering into cosmic
+consciousness is thus described:
+
+  "More than once when I
+  Sat all alone, revolving in myself,
+  The word that is the symbol of myself,
+  The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
+  And passed into the nameless, as a cloud
+  Melts into heaven. I touched my limbs; the limbs
+  Were strange, not mine; and yet no shade of doubt,
+  But utter clearness, and thro' loss of self
+  The gain of such large life as matched with ours
+  Were sun to spark--unshadowable in words.
+  Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."
+
+Tennyson's illumination is certain, clearly defined, distinct and
+characteristic, although his poems are much less cosmic than those of
+Whitman and of many others. There is, however, in the above, all that is
+descriptive of that state of consciousness which accompanies liberation
+from the illusion--the _enchantment_ of the merely mortal existence.
+
+Words are, as Tennyson fitly says, but "shadows of a shadow-world"; how
+then may we hope to define in terms comprehensible to sense-consciousness
+only, emotions and experiences which involve loss of _self_, and at the
+same time gain of the _Self_?
+
+Tennyson's frequent excursions into the realm of spiritual consciousness
+while still a child, bears out our contention that many children not
+infrequently have this experience, and either through reserve or from lack
+of ability to explain it, keep the matter to themselves; generally losing
+or "outgrowing" the tendency as they enter the activities of school life,
+and the mortal mind becomes dominant in them. This is especially true of
+the rising generation, and we personally know several clearly defined
+instances which have been reported to us, during conversations upon the
+theme of cosmic consciousness.
+
+
+YONE NOGUCHI
+
+Any one who has ever had the good fortune to read a little book of verse
+entitled "From the Eastern Seas," by Yone Noguchi, a young Japanese, will
+at once pronounce them a beautiful and perhaps perfect example of verse
+that may be correctly labeled "cosmic."
+
+Noguchi was under nineteen years of age when he penned these verses, but
+they are thoughts and expressions possible only to one who lives the
+greater part of his life within the illumination of the cosmic sense. They
+are so delicate as to have little, if any, of the mortal in them.
+
+It is also significant that Noguchi in these later years (he is now only a
+little past thirty), does not reproduce this cosmic atmosphere in his
+writings to such an extent, due no doubt to the fact that his daily
+occupation (that of Professor of Languages in the Imperial College of
+Tokio), compels his outer attention, excluding the fullness of the inner
+vision.
+
+The following lines, are perfect as an exposition of spiritual
+consciousness in which the lesser self has become submerged:
+
+  "Underneath the shade of the trees, myself passed into somewhere as a
+      cloud.
+  I see my soul floating upon the face of the deep, nay the faceless face
+      of the deepless deep--
+  Ah, the seas of loneliness.
+  The silence-waving waters, ever shoreless, bottomless, colorless, have no
+      shadow of my passing soul.
+  I, without wisdom, without foolishness, without goodness, without
+      badness--am like God, a negative god at least."
+
+The almost perpetual state of spiritual consciousness in which the young
+poet lived at this time is apparent in the following lines:
+
+  "When I am lost in the deep body of the mist on a hill,
+  The universe seems built with me as its pillar.
+  Am I the god upon the face of the deep, nay--
+  The deepless deepness in the beginning?"
+
+And the following, possible of comprehension only to one who has glimpsed
+the eternal verity of man's spiritual reality, and the shadow-like quality
+of the external; could have been written only by one freed from the bonds
+of illusion:
+
+  "The mystic silence of the moon,
+  Gradually revived in me immortality;
+  The sorrow that gently stirred
+  Was melancholy-sweet; sorrow is higher
+  Far than joy, the sweetest sorrow is supreme
+  Amid all the passions. I had
+  No sorrow of mortal heart: my sorrow
+  Was one given before the human sorrows
+  Were given me. Mortal speech died
+  From me: my speech was one spoken before
+  God bestowed on me human speech.
+  There is nothing like the moon-night
+  When I, parted from the voice of the city,
+  Drink deep of Infinity with peace
+  From another, a stranger sphere. There is nothing
+  Like the moon-night when the rich, noble stars
+  And maiden roses interchange their long looks of love.
+  When I raise my face from the land of loss
+  Unto the golden air, and calmly learn
+  How perfect it is to grow still as a star.
+  There is nothing like the moon-night
+  When I walk upon the freshest dews,
+  And amid the warmest breezes,
+  With all the thought of God
+  And all the bliss of man, as Adam
+  Not yet driven from Eden, and to whom
+  Eve was not yet born. What a bird
+  Dreams in the moonlight is my dream:
+  What a rose sings is my song."
+
+The true poet does not need individual experiences of either sorrow or of
+joy. His spirit is so attuned to the song of the universe; so sympathetic
+with the moans of earthly trials, that every vibration from the heart of
+the universe reaches him; stabs him with its sorrow, or irradiates his
+being with joy.
+
+Jesus is fitly portrayed to us as "The Man of Sorrows"; even while we
+recognize him as a self-conscious son of God--an immortal being fully aware
+of his escape from enchantment, and his heirship to Paradise.
+
+Cosmic consciousness bestows a bliss that is past all words to describe and
+it also quickens the sympathies and attunes the soul to the vibrations of
+the heart-cries of the struggling evolving ones who are still travailing in
+the pains of the new birth. We must be willing to endure the suffering _in
+order that we may realize_ the joy; not because joy is the reward for
+suffering, but because it is only by losing sight of the personal self that
+we become aware of that inner Self which is immortal and blissful; and when
+we become aware of the reality of that inner Self, we know that we are
+united with _the all_, and must feel with all.
+
+It would be impossible in one volume to enumerate all the poets who have
+given evidence of supra-consciousness. As has been previously pointed out,
+all true poets are at least temporarily aware of their dual nature--rather,
+one should say, the dual phases of their consciousness. Many, perhaps, do
+not function beyond the higher planes of the psychic vibrations, but even
+these are aware of the reality of the soul, and the illusion of the
+sense-conscious, mortal life.
+
+Dante; the Brownings; Shelley; Swinbourne; Goethe; Milton; Keats; Rosetti;
+Shakespeare; Pope; Lowell--where should we stop, did we essay to draw a
+line?
+
+
+WORDSWORTH
+
+Wordsworth, the poet of Nature has given us in his own words, so clearly
+cut an outline of his Illumination, that we can not resist recording here
+the salient points which mark his experience as that of cosmic
+consciousness, transcending the more frequent phenomenon of
+soul-consciousness and its psychic functions.
+
+Wordsworth's Ode to immortality epitomizes the lesson of the Yoga
+sutras--out of The Absolute we come, and return to immortal bliss with
+consciousness added. Wordsworth also affords an excellent example of our
+contention that cosmic consciousness does not come to us at any specific
+age or time. Wordsworth distinctly says that as a child he possessed this
+faculty, as for example his oft-repeated words, both in conversation and in
+his biography:
+
+"Nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of
+death, as a state applicable to my own being. It was not so much from
+feelings of animal vivacity that my difficulty came, as from a sense of the
+indomitableness of the spirit within me. I used to brood over the stories
+of Enoch and Elijah, and almost to persuade myself that, whatever might
+become of others, I should be translated, in something of the same way, to
+heaven. With a feeling congenial to this, I was often unable to think of
+external things as having external existence, and I communed with all that
+I saw as something not apart from, but inherent in, my own immaterial
+nature. Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree,
+to recall myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality."
+
+In later life, Wordsworth lost the realization of this supra-consciousness,
+in what a commentator calls a "fever of rationalism"; but the power of that
+wonderful spiritual vision, pronounced in his youth, could not be utterly
+lost and soon after he reached his thirtieth year, he again becomes the
+spiritual poet, fully conscious of his higher nature--the cosmic conscious
+self.
+
+
+WILLIAM SHARP--"FIONA MACLEOD"
+
+A pronounced instance of the two phases of consciousness, is that of the
+late William Sharp, one of the best known writers of the modern English
+school.
+
+It was not until after the death of William Sharp, that the secret of this
+dual personality was given to the public, although a few of his most
+intimates had known it for several years. In the "Memoirs" compiled by
+Elizabeth Sharp, wife of the writer, we find the following:
+
+"The life of William Sharp divides itself naturally into two halves: the
+first ends with the publication by William Sharp of 'Vistas,' and the
+second begins with 'Pharais,' the first book signed _Fiona Macleod_."
+
+In these memoirs, the point is made obvious that _Fiona Macleod_ is not
+merely a _nom de plume_; neither is she an obsessing personality; a guide
+or "control," as the Spiritualists know that phenomenon. _Fiona Macleod_,
+always referred to by William Sharp as "she," is his own higher Self--the
+cosmic consciousness of the spiritual man which was so nearly balanced in
+the personality of William Sharp as to _appear_ to the casual observer as
+another person.
+
+It is said that the identity of _Fiona Macleod_, as expressed in the
+manuscript put out under that name, was seldom suspected to be that of
+William Sharp, so different was the style and the tone of the work of these
+two phases of the same personality.
+
+In this connection it may be well to quote his wife's opinion regarding the
+two phases of personality, answering the belief of Yeats the Irish poet
+that he believed William Sharp to be the most extraordinary psychic he
+ever encountered and saying that _Fiona Macleod_ was evidently a distinct
+personality. In the Memoirs, Mrs. Sharp comments upon this and says:
+
+"It is true, as I have said, that William Sharp seemed a different person
+when the Fiona mood was on him; but that he had no recollection of what he
+said in that mood was not the case--the psychic visionary power belonged
+exclusively to neither; it influenced both and was dictated by laws he did
+not understand."
+
+Mrs. Sharp refers to William Sharp and Fiona, as two persons, saying that
+"it influenced both," but both sides of his personality rather than both
+personalities, is what she claims. In further explanation she writes:
+
+"I remember from early days how he would speak of the momentary curious
+'dazzle in the brain,' which preceded the falling away of all material
+things and precluded some inner vision of great beauty, or great presences,
+or some symbolic import--that would pass as rapidly as it came. I have been
+beside him when he has been in trance and I have felt the room throb with
+heightened vibration."
+
+One of the "dream-visions" which William Sharp experienced shortly before
+his last illness, is headed "Elemental Symbolism," and was recorded by him
+in these beautiful words:
+
+"I saw Self, or Life, symbolized all about me as a limitless, fathomless
+and lonely sea. I took a handful and threw it into the grey silence of
+ocean air, and it returned at once as a swift and potent flame, a red fire
+crested with brown sunrise, rushing from between the lips of sky and sea to
+the sound as of innumerable trumpets."
+
+"In another dream he visited a land where there was no more war, where all
+men and women were equal; where humans, birds and beasts were no longer at
+enmity, or preyed on one another. And he was told that the young men of the
+land had to serve two years as missionaries to those who lived at the
+uttermost boundaries. 'To what end?' he asked. 'To cast out fear, our last
+enemy.' In the house of his host he was struck by the beauty of a framed
+painting that seemed to vibrate with rich colors. 'Who painted that?' he
+asked. His host smiled, 'We have long since ceased to use brushes and
+paints. That is a thought projected from the artist's brain, and its
+duration will be proportionate with its truth.'"
+
+In explanation of why he chose to put out so much of the creative work of
+his brain under the signature of a woman, and how he happened to use the
+name _Fiona Macleod_, Sharp explained that when he began to realize how
+strong was the feminine element in the book _Pharais_, he decided to issue
+the book under a woman's name and _Fiona Macleod_ "flashed ready-made" into
+his mind. "My truest self, the self who is below all other selves must find
+expression," he explained. The Self that is _above_ the other self is what
+he should have said. The following extracts are from the _Fiona Macleod_
+phase of William Sharp and are characteristic of the Self, as evidenced in
+all instances of Illumination, particularly as these expressions refer to
+the nothingness of death, and the beauty and power of Love. "Do not speak
+of the spiritual life as 'another life'; there is no 'other life'; what we
+mean by that, is with us now. The great misconception of death is that it
+is the only door to another world." This testimony corroborates that of
+Whitman as well as of St. Paul, notwithstanding all the centuries that
+separate the two. St. Paul did not say that man _will have_ a spiritual
+body, but that he _has_ a spiritual body as well as a corporeal body.
+
+After the experience of his illumination, William Sharp, writing as _Fiona
+Macleod_ constantly testified to the ever-present reality of his spiritual
+life; a life far more real to him than the sense-conscious life although he
+alluded to it as his dream. In one place he says:
+
+"Now truly, is dreamland no longer a phantasy of sleep, but a loveliness so
+great that, like deep music, there could be no words wherewith to measure
+it, but only the breathless unspoken speech of the soul upon whom has
+fallen the secret dews."
+
+Of the impossibility of adequately explaining the mystery of Illumination
+and the sensations it inspires, he says, speaking through the Self of
+_Fiona Macleod_: "I write, not because I know a mystery, and would reveal
+it, but because I have known a mystery and am to-day as a child before it,
+and can neither reveal nor interpret it."
+
+This is comparable with Whitman's "when I try to describe the best, I can
+not. My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots."
+
+Another sentence from _Fiona_:
+
+"There is a great serenity in the thought of death, when it is known to be
+the gate of Life."
+
+Like all who have gained the Great Blessing, the revelation to the mind of
+that higher Self, that _we are_, William Sharp suffered keenly. The despair
+of the world was his, co-equal with the Joy of the Spirit. Indeed, his is
+at once the gift and the burden of the Illuminati.
+
+Mrs. Mona Caird said of him: "He was almost encumbered by the infinity of
+his perceptions; by the thronging interests, intuitions, glimpses of
+wonders, beauties, and mysteries which made life for him a pageant and a
+splendor such as is only disclosed to the soul that has to bear the torment
+and revelations of genius."
+
+The burden of the world's sorrow; the longings and aspirations of the soul
+that has glimpsed, or that has more fully cognized the realms of the Spirit
+which are its rightful home; are ever a part of the price of liberation.
+The illumined mind sees and hears and feels the vibrations that emanate
+from all who are travailing in the meshes of the sense-conscious life; but
+through all the sympathetic sorrow, there runs the thread of a divine
+assurance and certainty of profound joy--a bliss that passes comprehension
+or description.
+
+Mrs. Sharp, in the final conclusion of the _Memoirs_ says "to quote my
+husband's own words--ever below all the stress and failure, below all the
+triumph of his toil, lay the _beauty of his dream_."
+
+In accordance with an oft-repeated request, these lines are inscribed on
+the Iona cross carved in lava, which marks the grave wherein is laid to
+rest the earthly form of William Sharp:
+
+  "Farewell to the known and exhausted,
+  Welcome the unknown and illimitable."
+
+And this:
+
+"Love is more great than we conceive, and death is the keeper of unknown
+redemptions."
+
+They are from his higher Self; from the illumined "Dominion of Dreams."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
+
+
+Oriental philosophies recognize four important methods of yoga.
+
+Yoga is the word which signifies "uniting with God." From what has gone
+before in these pages, the reader will understand that unity with God means
+to us, the uncovering of the god-nature within or above, the human
+personality; it means the attainment and retainment in _fullness_ of cosmic
+consciousness. We do not believe that any one retains full and complete
+realization of cosmic consciousness and remains in the physical body. The
+numerous instances to which we allude in former chapters, are at best, but
+temporary flights into that state, which is the goal of the soul's
+pilgrimage, and the only means of escape from the "ceaseless round of
+births and deaths" which so weighed upon the heart of Gautama.
+
+The paths of yoga then, are the methods by which the mind, in the personal
+self, is made to perceive the reality of the higher Self, and its relation
+to the Supreme Intelligence--The Absolute.
+
+The various methods or paths are pointed out, but no one, nor all of these
+paths guarantees illumination as a _reward_ for diligence. That which is in
+the _heart_ of the disciple is the key that unlocks the door.
+
+These paths are called:
+
+_Karma Yoga; Raja Yoga; Gnani Yoga; Bhakti Yoga_.
+
+_Karma Yoga_ is the path of cheerful submission to the conditions in which
+the disciple finds himself, believing that those conditions are his because
+of his needs, and in order that he may fulfill that which he has attracted
+to himself. The admonition "whatever thy hand finds to do that doest thou
+with all thy heart," sums up the lessons of the path of Karma Yoga. The
+urge to achieve: to do; to accomplish; to strive and attain, actuates those
+who have, whether with conscious intent, or because of a vague "inward
+urge," devoted their lives to taking an active part in the material or
+intellectual achievements of the race.
+
+There are those who are blindly following (as far as their mental
+operations are concerned), the path of Karma Yoga; that is, they work
+without knowing why they work; they work because they are compelled to do
+so, as slaves of the law; these will work their way out of that necessity
+of fulfillment, in the course of time, even though they blindly follow the
+urge; but, if they could be made to work as masters of the conditions under
+which they labor, instead of as slaves to environment, they would find
+themselves at the end of that path. Karma Yoga would have been
+accomplished.
+
+"Work as those work who are ambitious" but be not thou enslaved by the
+delusion of personal ambition--this is the password to liberation from
+Karma Yoga.
+
+_Raja Yoga_ is the way of the strongly individualized _will_. "_Knowledge
+is power_" is the hope which encourages the disciple on the path of Raja
+Yoga. He seeks to master the personal self by meditation, by concentration
+of will; by self discipline and sacrifice. When the ego gains complete
+control over the mental faculties, so that the mind may be directed as the
+individual will suggests, the student has mastered the path of Raja Yoga.
+If his mastery is complete, he finds himself regarding his body as the
+instrument of the Self, and the body and its functions are under the
+guidance of the ego; the mind is the lever with which this Self raises the
+consciousness from the lower to the higher vibrations. The student who has
+mastered Raja Yoga can induce the trance state; control his dreams as well
+as his waking thoughts; he may learn to practice magic in its higher
+aspects, but unless he is extremely careful this power will tempt him to
+use his knowledge for selfish or unworthy purposes.
+
+Let the student of Raja Yoga bear in mind the one great and high purpose of
+his efforts, which should be: the realization of his spiritual nature, and
+the development of his individual self, so that it finally merges into the
+spiritual Self, thus gaining immortality "in the flesh."
+
+Does this "flesh" mean the physical body? Not necessarily, because this
+that we see and name "the physical body" is not the real body, any more
+than the clothing that covers it, is the person, although frequently we
+recognize acquaintances _by their clothing_. Immortality in the flesh
+means cessation from further incarnations, the last and present personality
+including all others in consciousness, until we can say, "I, manifesting in
+the physical, as so-and-so, am now and forever immortal, remembering other
+manifestations which were not sufficiently complete, but which added to the
+sum of my consciousness until now I _know myself a deathless being_."
+
+To those who seek the path of Raja Yoga, we recommend meditation upon
+Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, of which there are several translations, differing
+slightly as to interpretation. We have selected some of the most important,
+from the translations by Johnston. They are designed to make clear the
+difference between the self of personality, and the Self, or _atman_ which
+manifests in personality:
+
+"The personal self seeks to feast upon life, through a failure to perceive
+the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual man. All
+personal experience really exists for the sake of another: namely, the
+spiritual man. By perfectly concentrated meditation on experience for the
+sake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual man."
+
+The wise person seeks experience in order that he may attain to the
+standard of the spiritual man; doing all things for the lessons that they
+teach; working "as those work who are ambitious," and yet having no
+personal ambition. Looking on all life, and at the self of personality and
+knowing the illusion of the self he is raising the personal self to the
+spiritual plane; but always he has the handicap of the desires of the lower
+self, the personal, which "seeks to feast on life," because it is born of
+the external, and its inherent appetites are for the satisfaction and
+pleasures of that physical self.
+
+We do not say to look upon the body with its needs and its desires, as an
+enemy to be overcome; or that its allurements are dangerous although
+pleasurable. No. We say to the student, "control the desires of the body.
+Make them do the bidding of the Self, because it is only by so doing that
+you can gain the immortal heights of god-hood, looking down upon the
+fleeting dream of personality, with its so-called pleasures, as a bad
+nightmare compared to the joys that await the immortals."
+
+Therefore, concentrate upon experience for the sake of the Self that you
+are, and learn the lesson of your experience, throwing aside the experience
+itself, as you would cast aside the skin of an orange from which the juice
+had been extracted. Don't fill the areas of your mortal mind with
+rubbish--with memories of "benefits forgot;" or loves unrequited; or
+friendships broken; or misspent hours; or unhallowed words and acts.
+
+Cull from each day's experience all that helps to develop the spiritual
+man--all that will stand the test of immortality--kind words and deeds;
+principle maintained; a wrong forgiven; a service cheerfully extended; a
+tolerance and generosity for the mistakes of others as well as for your
+own. These seem small things to the personal self--the ambitious, the
+gloating, the sense-desiring self of the personality; we scarcely take them
+into account, but to the Self that is seeking immortality, these are the
+grains of wheat from the load of chaff; the diamond in the carbon; the
+wings upon which the spirit soars to realms of bliss.
+
+_Meditate upon this sutra._
+
+"By perfectly concentrated meditation upon the heart, the interior being,
+comes the knowledge of consciousness."
+
+The heart is the guide of the inner nature, as the head is of the outer.
+Love, the Most High God, is not born in the head, but in the heart. The
+heart travails in pain through sorrow and loss and compassion and pity and
+loneliness and aspiration and sensitiveness; and lo! there is born from
+this pain, the spiritual Self, which embraces the lesser consciousness,
+enfolding all your consciousness in the softness and bliss of pure,
+Seraphic Love--the heritage of your immortality.
+
+_Meditate long and wisely upon this sutra._
+
+"Through perfectly concentrated meditation on the light in the head, come
+the visions of the Masters who have attained; or through the divining power
+of intuition he knows all things."
+
+There is a point in the head, anatomically named "the pineal gland"; this
+is frequently alluded to as the seat of the soul, but the soul is not
+confined within the body, therefore, it is in the nature of a key between
+the sense-conscious self and the spiritually conscious Self; it is like a
+central receiving station, and may be "called up," and aroused to
+consciousness by meditation. Realizing and focusing the light of the
+spiritual nature upon this part of the head, opens up those unexplored
+areas of consciousness in which the masters dwell, and the student knows by
+intuition, which is a higher aspect of reason, many things which were
+heretofore incomprehensible to the merely sense-conscious man.
+
+The spiritual Self is not a being unlike and wholly foreign to our concept
+of the perfect mortal-man; all the powers of discernment which we find in
+mortal consciousness are accentuated, intensified, refined; all grossness,
+all imperfections and embarrassments removed; pleasure sensitized to
+ecstasy; love glorified to worship. "Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper
+of the diamond; these are the endowments of that body."
+
+The spiritual body is shapely, strong, beautiful, imperishable, as the
+diamond, with all its brilliancy. No vapory, uncertain, or _unreal being_,
+but the Real, with the husk of sense-consciousness dropped off, and only
+the kernels of truth buried in the chaff of Experience, retained from the
+experiences of the personal self.
+
+"When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic body,
+he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all."
+
+The spiritual Self, the cosmic conscious Self, must not be confounded with
+the psychic body, which is formed from the emotions--passions; fears;
+hatreds; ambitions; resentments; envy; regrets. Know thyself as a being
+superior to all baser emotions, and the mastery over them is complete. They
+are not destroyed, but converted into love--the everlasting Source of Life.
+
+"There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the
+invitations of the different regions of life, lest attachment to things
+evil arise once more."
+
+It is said that the disciples, seeking the paths of Yoga, reach three
+degrees or stages of development; first, those who are just entering the
+path; second, those who are in the realm of allurements, subject to
+temptations; third, those who have won the victory over the senses and the
+external life--_maya_; fourth, those who are firmly entrenched behind the
+bulwark of certainty; the spiritual being realized: cosmic consciousness
+attained and retained.
+
+"By absence of all self indulgence at this point, also, the seeds of
+bondage of sorrow are destroyed, and pure spiritual being is attained."
+
+Self-abnegation and self-sacrifice have ever been the way of spiritual
+development; but we are prone to misunderstand and mistake the true
+interpretation of this admonition; men shut themselves in monasteries and
+women become nuns and recluses _as a penance_, in order to purchase, as it
+were, absolution (at-one-ness with The Absolute, which knows not sin); this
+is not the point intended here. Spiritual consciousness can not be bought;
+the desires of the personal self may be _sublimated_ into divine force and
+power, through recognizing the desires of the self as baubles which attract
+and fill the eye, until we fail to see the glories of that which awaits us.
+
+"Thereafter, the whole personal being bends toward illumination, full of
+the spirit of Eternal Life."
+
+Here again, we have assurance that the spiritually-conscious man, the
+"luminous body" is not a being apart from the self that we know our inner
+nature to be, but rather it _is_ the inner Self even as we in our ignorance
+and our lack of initiation, know it, raised to a higher realm of
+consciousness; our desires refined, spiritualized, made pure, and our
+faculties strengthened and immortalized. We do not withdraw from experience
+but we draw from Experience the _lesson_--the hidden wisdom of the
+initiate.
+
+_Meditate upon these sutras._
+
+"He who, after he has attained, is wholly free from self, is set in a cloud
+of holiness which is called Illumination. This is the true spiritual
+consciousness."
+
+This aphorism is self-explanatory. He who attains illumination, and
+afterward lives and acts from the inner consciousness--the _spiritual man_,
+is free from the desires of the sense-conscious life, with its consequent
+disappointments; he sees everything from the spiritual, rather than the
+mental point of view, and understands the phrase "and behold, all was
+good."
+
+"_Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil._"
+
+The one who has attained cosmic consciousness, acting always from the Self,
+and not from personal desires, is set free from karma; he has fulfilled the
+cycle; he makes no more bondage for himself; he is free and is already
+immortal.
+
+"When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is far-reaching,
+and not confined to the body, which is outside the body and not conditioned
+by it, then the veil which conceals the light is worn away."
+
+The acquisition of spiritual consciousness, Illumination, endows the mortal
+mind also, with a degree of power sufficient to penetrate the veil of
+illusion--the _maya_; the disciple then sees for the first time, all things
+in their true light. The separation between the personal self, and the
+spiritual being that we are, is so fine as to be like a cob-web veil, and
+yet how few penetrate it. The suddenness with which this awakening (for it
+is like awakening from a dream of the senses), comes, startles and
+surprises us, and then we become astonished at the transparency of the
+bonds that bound us to the limitations of the mortal, when we might have
+soared to realms of light.
+
+"By perfectly concentrated meditation on the correlation of the body with
+the ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down, will come the
+power to traverse the ether."
+
+The Zens say that the way of the gods is through the air and afterwards in
+the ether. This means that we must evolve from the physical to the psychic,
+and thence to the etheric or spiritual body. This is the way of the many.
+It is only the few who attain to perfect spiritual consciousness while
+manifesting in the physical, but these do not have to undergo "the second
+death" which is the dropping off of the psychic body, and assuming the
+spiritual body. They attain to immortality _in the flesh_, (i.e., in the
+present personality).
+
+"Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other powers,
+which are the endowment of the body, together with its unassailable force."
+
+The body here referred to, it must be borne in mind, is the etheric or
+spiritual body, which possesses the power to disintegrate matter; the power
+to annihilate time and space; so that he may look backward into remote
+antiquity and forward into boundless futurity; or as the commentator says,
+"he can touch the moon with the tip of his finger"; the power of levitation
+and limitless extension; the power of command; the power of creative will.
+
+These are the endowments of the spiritual body with which the disciple is
+seeking to establish his identity--that he may overcome the second death
+and become immortal _in consciousness_, here and now.
+
+Of this spiritual, or etheric body it is said, "Fire burns it not; water
+wets it not; the sword cleaves it not; dry winds parch it not. It is
+unassailable."
+
+_Meditate upon this sutra._
+
+"For him who discerns between the mind and the spiritual man (the Self)
+there comes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being."
+
+When the disciple has once grasped the fact that he _is_ a soul, and
+_possesses_ a mind and a physical covering, he has entered on the way of
+Illumination, and must inevitably reach the goal; then shall he find
+"perfect fruition of the longing" after the perfect Self, and its
+completement in union with the love that he craves. "Have you, in lonely
+darkness longed for companionship and consolation? You shall have angels
+and archangels for your friends and all the immortal hosts of the Dawn."
+
+Such are the Yoga sutras, or aphorisms, as enunciated by Patanjali.
+
+If the aspiring one were to give up a whole lifetime to their practice,
+gaining at last the consciousness of immortal life and love, what a small
+price to pay.
+
+_Raja Yoga_ with its methods and exercises, is the path of knowledge,
+through application; concentration; meditation.
+
+The practice of Raja Yoga will lead the student to the path of Gnani Yoga;
+and to the realization that Bhakti Yoga, the way of love and service will
+be included, not as an arduous task; not as a study, or as a means to an
+end, but because of the love of it.
+
+_Gnani Yoga_ comes as complementary to practice of the sutras because
+knowledge applied for the purpose of spiritual attainment brings _wisdom_.
+_Gnani Yoga_, then, is the path of wisdom. The follower of Gnani Yoga seeks
+the occult or hidden wisdom, and always has before him the idea of whether
+this or that be of the Self, the _atman_, or of the self, the personal,
+gradually eliminating from his desires all that does not answer the test of
+its reality in spiritual consciousness; he welcomes experiences of all
+kinds, as so many lessons from which he extracts the fine grain of truth,
+and throws aside the husks; he accepts nothing blindly or in faith, but
+"proves all things holding fast to that which is good"; not that he lacks
+faith, but because the very nature of his inquiry is to discover the
+interior nature and its relation to God.
+
+There are many in the world of to-day who feel the urge toward the path of
+Gnani Yoga, because of the conviction that is forcing itself upon every
+truly enlightened mind, that civilization with all its wonderful
+achievements, does not promise happiness, or solve the question of the
+soul's urge. In short, the educated, and the well conditioned, if he be a
+thinker, and not submerged in _maya_, lost in the personal self, inevitably
+finds himself searching for the _real_ in all this labyrinth of mind
+creations and sea of emotions, and then as a rule, he seeks the path of
+Gnani Yoga, because his intellect must be satisfied, even though his heart
+calls. The mystic, the teacher, and the philosopher are following the path
+of Gnani; so is the true occultist, but many who deal in so-called
+occultism are employing _knowledge_ only, entirely missing the higher
+quality--_wisdom_.
+
+_Bhakti Yoga_, the path of self-surrender; the thorny way through the
+emotions; the "blood of the heart," is the short cut to Illumination, if
+such a thing could be. But there is no "short cut"; nor yet a long road.
+
+Some one has said there are as many ways to God as there are souls. And
+yet, all persons who are on the upward climb, are demonstrating some one of
+these four paths, or a combination of the paths. It is, however, a
+significant fact that we do not hear anything of the great intellectual
+attainments of the three great masters--Krishna, Buddha and Jesus, but only
+of their great compassion; their wonderful love for mankind, and all living
+things.
+
+St. Paul, who was probably an educated man, as he held a position of
+prominence among those in authority, previous to his conversion, laid
+particular stress upon the love-nature as the way of illumination.
+
+And Jesus repeatedly said "Love is the fulfilling of the law." What is the
+law? The law of evolution and involution; of generation and regeneration;
+when the time should come, that Love was to reign on the planet earth as it
+does in the heavens above the earth, then should the kingdom of which he
+foretold "be at hand," and in conclusion of this _to-be_, Jesus promised
+that the law would be fulfilled when Love should come.
+
+So Swami Vivekananda in his exposition of Vedanta declares:
+
+"Love is higher than work, than yoga; than knowledge. Day and night think
+of God in the midst of all your activities. The daily necessary thoughts
+can all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see
+Him in all. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him act
+and do nothing ourselves. Complete self-surrender is the only way. Put out
+self, lose it; forget it."
+
+Let us substitute for the words "God," and "Him," the one word Love, and
+see what it is that we are told to do.
+
+Love of doing good frees us from work, even though we labor from early dawn
+until the night falls; so, too, if we have some loved one for whom we
+strive, we can endure every hardship with equanimity, as far as our own
+comfort is concerned. Few human beings in the world to-day are so enmeshed
+in the personal self as to work merely for the gratification of selfish
+instincts. The hard-working man, whether laborer or banker, must have some
+one else for whom he struggles and strives; otherwise, he descends to a
+level below that of the brute.
+
+This is the reason for the family; the lodge; the community; the nation;
+there must be some motive other than the preservation of the personal self,
+in order to develop the higher quality of love which embraces the world,
+until the spirit of a Christ takes possession of the human and he would
+gladly offer himself a sacrifice to the world, if by so doing he could
+eliminate all the pain from the world.
+
+How natural it is to feel, when we see a loved one suffering, that we would
+gladly take upon ourselves that pain; the heart fills with love until it
+aches with the burden of it; this love enlarged, expanded and impersonal in
+its application is the same love with which we are told to love God, and to
+"do all for Him." Do all for love of all the other hearts in the Universe
+that feel as we feel when their loved ones suffer--that is the way to love
+God--it is the only way we know. We only know divine love through human
+love: human love is divine when it is unselfish and eternal--not fed upon
+carnality, but anchored in spiritual complement.
+
+The story of Abou Ben Adhem ("may his tribe increase") tells us how we may
+know who loves the Lord. The angel wrote the names of those who loved the
+Lord most faithfully and fully, and coming to Abou Ben Adhem asked if he
+should write his name, and received the reply that he could not say whether
+he deeply loved the Lord, but he was quite certain that the angel could
+"write me as one who loves his fellow-men." And, lo! when the list was made
+and the names of all who loved the Lord recorded, Abou Ben Adhem's name
+headed the list.
+
+The Vedanta philosophy teaches non-attachment and Vivekananda himself says:
+"To love any one personally is bondage. Love all alike then all desires
+fall off."
+
+To love only the personal self of any one binds us to the sorrow of loss
+and of separation and disappointment; but to love any one spiritually is to
+establish a bond which can never be broken; which insures reunion, and
+defies time and space.
+
+We can not love all alike, though we can love all humanity impersonally.
+All desires that have their root in the sense-conscious plane of
+expression, will fall off when the heart is anchored in spiritual love; but
+let it be understood that spiritual love is not opposed to human love; we
+do not grow into spiritual love by denying the human, but by plussing the
+human.
+
+Spiritual consciousness is all that is good and pure and noble, and
+satisfying in the mortal and infinitely more. It is the love of personal
+self _plus_ the _Self_--the _atman_.
+
+Love is never unrequited. It is never wasted; never foolish. Love is its
+own self-justification; if it be real love, and not vanity, or self
+admiration, misnamed, give it freely, and don't ask for a return; don't ask
+whither it leads; only ask if it is real--if the love you feel is for the
+object of your love, or if it is for yourself--for you to possess and to
+minister to your pleasure; ask whether it is from the senses or from the
+heart.
+
+The way of the _Bhakti yoga_, is the way of love and service, because
+service to our fellow beings, is the inevitable complement of love. Where
+we truly love, we gladly serve. It has been said: "The chela treads a
+hair-line." That is to say, the initiate must be prepared to meet defeat at
+every turn. Not defeat of his object of attainment, but the personal defeat
+that so many seek in the delusion that the world's ideal of success is the
+real success.
+
+In conclusion we can only repeat what has been told and retold many times
+by all inspired ones, of whatever creed and race; namely, think and act
+always from the _inner Self_, cheerfully taking the consequences of your
+choice. Let not the opinions of the illusory world of the senses balk and
+thwart you. Let not the "worldly-wise" swerve you from your ideal and your
+faith in the final goal of your earthly pilgrimage--the attainment of
+spiritual consciousness _in your present personality_; this is the meaning
+of immortality in the flesh Doubt not this.
+
+Make love your ideal; your guide; your final goal; look for the inner Self
+of all whom you meet. "Learn to look into the _hearts_ of men," says the
+injunction in Light on the Path; dismiss from your mind all the
+accumulation of traditional concepts and prejudices that are not grounded
+in love, and above all _falter not_, nor doubt--no matter what seeming
+hardships you encounter in your earthly pilgrimage; they are but the
+Indian-clubs of your soul's gymnasium--Experience. "Meet with Triumph and
+Disaster, and treat these _two impostors_ just the same."
+
+Triumph and Disaster as seen with the eyes of sense-consciousness are both
+illusions; but don't for this reason cease your work. The phrase "you must
+work out your own salvation" is true. So also, you must be willing to do
+your part in working out the salvation of the world; salvation means simply
+the realization of the spiritual Being that you are--the attainment of that
+state of Illumination which guarantees immortality.
+
+Experience teaches one important lesson: Our sense-conscious life is filled
+with symbolic language if we have the inner eye of discernment. An
+unescapable truth is symbolized in our daily life by the evidence that we
+get nothing for nothing. Everything has its price.
+
+Immortality godhood, will not be handed to you on a silver salver; neither
+can any one withhold it from you, if you desire it above all things. And,
+altho' it has its price, yet _you can not buy it_. A seeming paradox, but
+the Initiate will see it all clearly enough when the time comes.
+
+  "He who would scale the Heights of Understanding
+  From whence the soul looks out forever free
+  Must falter not; nor fail; all truth demanding
+  Though he bear the cross and know Gethsemane."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The discouraged student says to himself: "If Truth demands such sorrow and
+sacrifice as this, I will not serve her. It is a false god that would so
+try his devotees."
+
+Have you not said it?
+
+The toll you pay is not to the Divine Self within, but to the "keepers of
+the threshold," that guard the entrance to the dwelling place of the
+Illuminati.
+
+Earthly lodges and brotherhoods are symbols of the higher initiations.
+
+There is a common mistake in the idea that the invisible states of
+consciousness are chaotic, or radically different from the visible.
+
+"As below, so above, and as above so below" is an aphorism constantly held
+before the eyes of the would-be initiate. Each of whom, must interpret and
+know it for himself.
+
+If the student finds the Raja Yoga sutras difficult of comprehension or of
+practice let him meditate upon the following mantrams:
+
+I know myself to be above the false concepts which assail the personal self
+that I _appear_ to be. I am united with the All-seeing All-knowing
+Consciousness.
+
+I abide in the consciousness of the Indestructibility and Omniscience of
+Being. I rest secure and content in the integrity of Cosmic Law which shall
+lead my soul unto its own, guaranteeing immortal love.
+
+I unite myself with that Power that makes for righteousness. Therefore
+nothing shall dismay or defeat me, because I am at-one with the limitless
+areas of spiritual consciousness.
+
+My mind is the dynamic center through which my soul manifests the Love
+which illumines the world. Only good can come to the world through me.
+
+Much that is called Mental Science, New Thought and Christian Science has
+for its aim and ideal, avoidance of all that does not make for personal
+well-being, and worldly success. Avoid this ideal; distrust this motive. Be
+ever willing to sacrifice the personal self to the Real Self, _if need be_.
+If the ideal is truly the desire for _illumination_, and not for
+self-gratification, the mind will soon learn to distinguish between the
+lesser and the greater. Have you longed for perfect, satisfying _human_
+love?
+
+You shall have it plussed a thousand fold in immortal spiritual union with
+_your_ god.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY.
+
+
+In the foregoing chapters we have set forth only a few of the facts and
+instances which the inquirer will find, if he but seek, of the reality of a
+supra-conscious faculty, no less actual, than are the faculties of the
+sense-conscious human, which type forms the average of the race.
+
+This faculty, or rather we should say _these faculties_--because they find
+expression in many ways, through avenues correlative to the physical
+senses--prove the existence of a realm of consciousness, far above the
+planes of the mortal or sense-conscious man, and transcending the region
+known as the astral and psychic areas of consciousness.
+
+All who have reported their experiences in contacting this illimitable
+region unite in the essential points of experience, namely:
+
+The experience is indescribable.
+
+It confers an unshakable conviction of immortality.
+
+It discloses the fact that we are now living in this supra-conscious realm;
+that it is not something which we acquire after death; it _is_ not _to be_.
+
+This realm is characterized by a beautiful, wonderful radiant iridescent
+light.
+
+"_O green fire of life, pulse of the world, O love."_
+
+It fills the heart with a great and all-embracing love, establishing a
+realization of the silent Brotherhood of the Cosmos, demolishing all
+barriers of race and color and class and condition.
+
+Illumination is inclusive. It knows no separation.
+
+It announces the fact that every person is right from his point of view.
+
+"That nothing walks with aimless feet; that no one life shall be destroyed;
+or cast as rubbish on the void; when God hath made the pile complete."
+
+That Life and Love and Joy unutterable are the reward of the seeker; and
+that there is no one and only path.
+
+All systems; all creeds; all methods that are formulated and upheld by
+altruism are righteous, and that the Real is the spiritual--the external is
+a dream from which the world is awakening to the consciousness of the
+spiritual man--the _atman_--the Self that is ageless; birthless;
+deathless--divine. On all sides are evidences that the race is entering
+upon this new consciousness.
+
+So many are weary with the strife and struggle and noise of the
+sense-conscious life.
+
+The illusions of possessions which break in our hands as we grasp them; of
+empty titles of so-called "honor," builded upon prowess in war; the
+feverish race after wealth--cold as the marble palaces which it builds to
+shut in its worshippers--all these things are becoming skeleton-like and
+no longer deceive those who are even remotely discerning the new birth.
+
+The new heraldry will have for its badge of royalty "Love and Service to my
+Fellow Beings," displacing the "Dieu et mon Droit" of the ancient ideal.
+
+The Dawn is here. Are you awake?
+
+  "--In the heart of To-day is the word of To-morrow.
+  The Builders of Joy are the Children of Sorrow."
+
+
+
+
+Jesus The Last Great Initiate
+
+By EDOUARD SCHURE
+
+
+Mr. Schure in this volume, has done much to strengthen the belief that
+Jesus was an Essene, in whom a Messianic consciousness was awakened by
+special initiation.
+
+A remarkable full account is given of his experiences among the Essenes and
+how his early life, (about which the Bible is so reticent) was spent
+studying with the advanced Occult masters.
+
+The problem of how Jesus became the Messiah, he holds to be not capable of
+solution without the aid of intuition and esoteric tradition.
+
+The life of the great Teacher as pictured by the writer is one to be
+dreamed over and capable of imparting both knowledge and stimulus to that
+inner life which is in so many undeveloped and even unsuspected.
+
+Bound Silk Cloth.
+
+Price $0.80 Postpaid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Krishna and Orpheus
+
+The Great Initiates of the East and West
+
+By EDOUARD SCHURE
+
+
+The lives and teachings of these two great Masters who preceeded Jesus are
+very much like the latter's. You cannot help noting the remarkable
+resemblance they bear to each other.
+
+Krishna's Virgin Birth, His Youth, Initiation, The Doctrine of the
+Initiates, Triumph and Death, are all told in a fashion that shows that
+Mr. Schure has devoted much time to thought and research work. The mighty
+religious of India, Egypt and Greece are passed in rapid review and the
+author declares that while from the outside they present nothing but chaos,
+the root idea of their founders and prophets presents a key to them all.
+
+Bound in Silk Cloth.
+
+Price $0.80 Postpaid.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14002 ***
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c66d3af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14002 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14002)
diff --git a/old/14002-8.txt b/old/14002-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae679a6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14002-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8049 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Cosmic Consciousness, by Ali Nomad
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Cosmic Consciousness
+
+Author: Ali Nomad
+
+Release Date: November 10, 2004  [eBook #14002]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Valerine Blas, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+The Man-God Whom We Await
+
+by
+
+ALI NOMAD
+
+1915
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW BIRTH; WHAT IT IS; INSTANCES DESCRIBED
+
+
+The religions and philosophies of the Orient and the Occident compared;
+their chief difference; The mistaken idea of death. Cosmic Consciousness
+not common in the Orient. Why? What the earnest disciple strives for. The
+Real and the unreal. Buddha's agonized yearnings; why he was moved by them
+with such irresistible power; the ultimate victory. The identity of The
+Absolute; The Oriental teachings; "The Spiritual Maxims of Brother
+Lawrence;" The seemingly miraculous power of the Oriental initiate; does
+he really "talk" to birds and animals? How they learn to know and read "the
+heart of the world." The inner temples throughout Japan. The strange
+experience of a Zen (a Holy Order of Japan), student-priest in attaining
+_mukti_. The key to Realization. An address by Manikyavasayar, one of the
+great Tamil saints of Southern India. The Hindu conception of Cosmic
+Consciousness. The Japanese idea of the state. The Buddhist "Life-saving"
+monasteries; how the priests extend their consciousness to immeasurable
+distances at will. The last incarnation of God in India. His marvelous
+insight. The urge of the spiritual yearning for the "Voice of the Mother."
+His twelve years of struggle. His final illumination. The unutterable bliss
+pictured in his own words. What the Persian mystics allusion to "union with
+the Beloved" signifies; its exoteric and its esoteric meaning. The "Way of
+the Gods." The chief difference between the message of Jesus and that of
+other holy men. The famous "Song of Solomon" and the different
+interpretations; a new version. A French writer's evident glimpses of the
+new birth. Man's relation to the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN
+
+
+The great riddle and a new solution. The persistence of the ideal of
+Perfected Man; Has it any basis in history? The superlative faculty of
+spiritual sight as depicted by artists, painters and sculptors. Symbols of
+consciousness. The way in which the higher consciousness expresses itself.
+Certain peculiar traits which distinguish those destined to the influx. The
+abode of the gods; The conditioned promise of godhood in Man. What is
+Nirvana? The Vedantan idea. The Christian idea. Did Jesus teach the kingdom
+of God on earth? Is there a basis for belief in physical immortality? A
+new explanation. The perilous paths. Those who "will see God." Evolution
+of consciousness from prehistoric man to the highest developed beings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+
+The Divine spark. Consciousness the essence of everything. Axioms of
+universal Occultism. The great central light. The teachings of Oriental
+seers regarding the ultimate goal. Different stages of mankind. Births in
+consciousness. Physical consciousness: its limitations. Mental
+consciousness: the jungles of the mind. Soul consciousness; whither it
+leads. The irresistible urge. Why we obey it. Sayings of ancient
+manuscripts. Perfecting Light. The disciple's test. Awakening of the divine
+man. Is he now on earth? What is meant by the awakening of the inner Self.
+Is the _atman_ asleep? The doctrine of illusion; its relation to Cosmic
+Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS
+
+
+The Dark Ages. The esoteric meaning of religious practices. The penetrating
+power of spiritual insight. The mystery of conversion. The paradox of
+Self-attainment and the necessity for selflessness. The Oriental teachings
+regarding the Self. The wisdom of the Illumined Master. The test of fitness
+for Nirvana. What caused Buddha the greatest anxiety? Experiences of
+Oriental sages and their testimony. What correlation exists between
+Buddha's desire and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness among
+Occidental disciples.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS
+
+
+The wonderful brilliancy of Illumination. Dr. Bucke's description of the
+Cosmic Light; his opinion regarding the possibility of becoming more
+general. Peculiar methods of producing spiritual ecstacy, as described by
+Lord Tennyson and others. The Power and Presence of God, as a reality. The
+dissolution of race barriers. The effacement of the sense of sin among the
+Illuminati. What is meant by the phrase "naked and unashamed." Will such a
+state ever exist on the earth? Efforts of those who have experienced Cosmic
+Consciousness to express the experience; the strange similarity found in
+all attempts. Is there any evidence that Cosmic Consciousness is possible
+to all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION
+
+
+The simple religion of early Japan. The inner or secret shrine: its
+esoteric and its exoteric office. The Mystic Brotherhoods. Why the esoteric
+meanings have always been veiled. The great teachers and the uniformity of
+their instructions. Philosophy as taught by Vivekananda. The fundamental
+doctrine of Buddhism. Have the present-day Buddhists lost the key? Is
+religion necessary to Illumination? The fruits of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER
+
+
+The salient features of the Law as given by Moses to his people. Had the
+ancient Hebrews any knowledge of Illumination and its results? The symbol
+of liberation. Its esoteric meaning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE
+
+
+Prenatal conditions influencing Buddha. His strange temperament. His
+peculiar trances and their effect upon him. Why Buddha endured such
+terrible struggles; is suffering necessary to Cosmic Consciousness? From
+what was Buddha finally liberated? The simplicity of Buddha's commandments
+in the light of Cosmic Consciousness. The fundamental truths taught by
+Buddha and all other sages. Buddha's own words regarding death and Nirvana.
+Last words to his disciples. How the teachings of Buddha compare with the
+vision of Cosmic Consciousness. His method of development of spiritual
+consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JESUS OF NAZARETH
+
+
+The astonishing similarity found in all religious precepts; the
+distinguishing feature of the teachings as delivered by Jesus. His repeated
+allusion to "the light within." The great commandment he gave to his
+disciples. Love the basis of the teachings of all Illumined minds. The
+"Second Coming of Christ." The signs of the times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PAUL OF TARSUS
+
+
+His undoubted experience of illumination and its effects. Was Paul changed
+by "conversion," or what was the wonderful power that altered his whole
+life? Why Paul sought seclusion after his illumination. Characteristics of
+all Illumined ones. The desire for simplicity. Paul's incomparable
+description of "the Love that never faileth." The safe guide to
+illumination. The "first fruits of the spirit," as prophesied by Paul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MOHAMMED
+
+
+Mohammed a predestined Leader. Condition of Arabia at his birth. Prophecies
+of a Messiah. His peculiar psychic temperament; his frequent attacks of
+catalepsy; his sufferings because of doubt; his never-ceasing urge toward a
+final revelation. His changed state after the revelation on Mt. Hara. His
+unswerving belief in his mission; his devotion to Truth; His simplicity and
+humility. His claim to Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
+
+
+Swedenborg's early life. His sudden change from materialism. The difficulty
+of clear enunciation. His unfailing belief in the divinity of his
+revelations. How they compare with experiences of others. The frequent
+reception of the Light. The blessing of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
+BALZAC
+
+
+The way to Illumination through intellectual cultivation; Emerson a notable
+example; The Cosmic note in his essays and conversations. Emerson's
+religious nature. His familiarity with Oriental philosophy; his remarkable
+discrimination; the peculiar penetrating quality of his intellect. His
+never failing assurance of unity with the Divine. His belief in a spiritual
+life. Did Emerson predict a Millenium? His writings as they reflect light
+upon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+LEO TOLSTOI--RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER
+
+
+Tolstoi the strangest and most unusual figure of the Nineteenth Century;
+His almost unbearable sufferings; his avowed materialism; his horror of
+death; The prevailing gloom of his writings and to what due. Incidents in
+his life previous to his illumination. The remarkable and radical change
+made by his experience. To what was due Tolstoi's great struggle and
+suffering? Why the great philosopher sought to die in a hut. His idea not
+one of penance. The signal change in his life after illumination. What he
+says of this.
+
+
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC
+
+
+Balzac's classification as of the psychic temperament. His amazing power of
+magnetic attraction. His feminine refinement in dress. His power of
+inspiration gave him his place in French literature. The dominant motive of
+all his writings. His unshakable conviction of immortality. His power to
+function on both planes of consciousness. The lesson to be drawn from
+Seraphita. Balzac's evident intention, and why veiled. The inevitable
+conclusion to be drawn from the Symbolical character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT
+
+
+Poetry the language of Cosmic Consciousness. Unconscious instruments of the
+Cosmic law. The true poet and the maker of rhymes. The mission and scope of
+the poetical temperament. How "temperament" affects expression. No royal
+road to Illumination. Teaching of Oriental mysticism. Whitman's
+extraordinary experience. His idea of "Perfections." Lord Tennyson's two
+distinct states of consciousness; his early boyhood and strange
+experiences. Facts about his illumination. The after effects. Tennyson's
+vision of the future. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature. How he attained and
+lost spiritual illumination. How he again received the great Light. The
+evidences of two states of consciousness. Outline of his illumination.
+Noguchi--a most remarkable instance of Illumination in early youth; Lines
+expressive of an exalted state of consciousness; how it resulted in later
+life. The strange case of William Sharp and "Fiona Macleod:" a perfect
+example of dual consciousness; the distinguishing features of the self and
+the Self; the fine line of demarcation. How the writer succeeded in living
+two distinct lives and the result. Remarkable contribution to literature. A
+puzzling instance of phases of consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
+
+
+The four Oriental methods of liberation. The goal of the soul's pilgrimage.
+Strange theory advanced. Revolutionary results that follow. How to perceive
+the actuality of the higher Self. Gaining immortality "In the flesh;" What
+Revelation has promised and its substantiation in modern Science. The prize
+and the price. Some valuable Yoga exercises to induce spiritual ecstacy.
+What "union with God" really means. The "Brahmic Bliss" of the Upanashads.
+The new race; its powers and privileges. "The man-god whom we await" as
+described by Emerson.
+
+
+
+
+THE SELF AND SYMBOL
+
+
+  Thou most Divine! above all women
+  Above all men in consciousness.
+
+  Thou in thy nearness to me
+  Hast shown me paths of love.
+  Yea; walks that lead from hell
+  To the great light; where life and love
+    Do ever reign.
+
+  Thou hast taught to me a patience
+  To behold whatever state;
+  However beautiful and joyful; however ugly and sorrowful.
+
+  To know that these are--all!--but
+  The glimmerings of the greater life--
+  Expressions of the infinite.
+
+  According to the finality of that moment
+  Now to come; in the eternal now, which thou
+  Sweet Presence, hast awakened me to--
+  I see the light--the way.
+
+  An everlasting illumination
+  That takes me to the gate; the open door
+  To the house of God.
+  There I find most priceless jewels;
+  The key to all the ways,
+  That lead from _Om_ to thee.
+
+  A mistake--an off-turn from the apparent road of right
+  Is but the bruising of thy temple,
+  Calling thy Self--thy soul--
+  The God within; showing thee,
+  The _nita_ of it all; which is but the half of me.
+
+  And as thy consciousness of the two
+  The _nita_ and the _ita_, comes to thee
+  A three is formed--the trinity is found.
+
+  Through thee the Deity hast spoken
+  Uniting the two in the one;
+
+  Revealing the illusion of mortality
+  The message of _Om_ to the Illumined.
+
+--Ali Nomad.
+
+
+
+
+ARGUMENT
+
+
+
+
+Man is essentially a spiritual being.
+
+The source of this spiritual Omniscience we may not, in our finite
+intelligence, fully cognize, because full cognition would preclude the
+possibility of finite expression.
+
+The destiny of man is perfection.
+
+Man perfected becomes a god.
+
+"Only the gods are immortal," we are told.
+
+Let us consider what this means, supposing it to be an axiom of truth.
+
+Mortality is subject to change and death. Mortality is the manifest--the
+stage upon which "man in his life plays many parts."
+
+Immortality, is what the word says it is--godhood re-cognized in the
+mortal. "Im" or, "Om"--the more general term--stands for the Changeless.
+Birthless. Deathless. Unnamable Power that holds the worlds in space, and
+puts intelligence into man.
+
+Biologists, even though they were to succeed in reproducing life by
+chemical processes from so-called "lifeless" (sterilized) _matter_, making
+so high a form of manifestation as man himself, yet could never name _the
+power by which they accomplished it_.
+
+Always there must remain the Unknownable--the Absolute.
+
+"Om," therefore, is the word we use to express this Omniscient, Omnipotent
+and Omnipresent power.
+
+The term "mortal" we have already defined. The compound immortal, applied
+to individual man, stands for one who has made his "at-one-ment" with Om,
+and who has, while still in the mortal body, re-cognized himself as one
+with Om.
+
+This is what it means to escape the "second death," to which the merely
+mortal consciousness is subject.
+
+This is the goal of every human life; this is the essence, the _substance_
+of all religious systems and all philosophies.
+
+The only chance for disputation among theologians and philosophers, lies in
+the way of accomplishing this at-one-ment. There is not the slightest
+opportunity for a difference of opinion as what they wish to accomplish.
+
+Admitting then, that the goal of every soul is the same--immortality--(the
+mortal consciousness cognizing itself as Om), we come to a consideration of
+the evidence we may find in support of this axiom. This evidence we do
+_not_ find satisfactory, in spirit communication; in psychic experiences;
+in hypnotic phenomena; and astral trips; important, and reliable as these
+many psychic research phenomena are.
+
+These are not satisfactory or convincing evidences of our at-one-ment with
+Om, because they do not preclude the probability of the "second death;" but
+on the contrary, they verify it.
+
+However, aside from all these psychic phenomena, there is a phase of human
+experience, much more rare but becoming somewhat general, that transcends
+phenomena of every kind.
+
+The western world has given to these experiences the term "cosmic
+consciousness," which term is self explanatory.
+
+The Orientals have long known of this goal of the soul, and they have terms
+to express this, varying with the many types of the Oriental mind, but all
+meaning the same thing. This meaning, from our Occidental viewpoint, is
+best translated in the term liberation, signifying to be set free from the
+limitations of sense, and of self-consciousness, and to have glimpsed the
+larger area of consciousness, that takes in the very cosmos.
+
+This experience is accompanied by a great light, whether this light is
+manifested as spiritual, or as intellectual power, determines its
+expression.
+
+The object of this book is to call attention to some of the more pronounced
+instances of this Illumination, and to classify them, according as they
+have been expressed through religions enthusiasm; poetical fervor; or great
+intellectual power.
+
+But we have also one other argument to make, and this we present with a
+conviction of its _truth_, while conceding that it must remain a _theory_,
+until proven, each individual, man or woman, for himself and herself. The
+postulate is this: immortality (i.e. godhood) is bi-sexual. No male person
+can by any possibility become an immortal god, in, of and by himself; no
+female person can be complete without the "other half" that makes the ONE.
+
+Each and every SOUL, therefore, has its spiritual counterpart--its "other
+half," with which it unites on the spiritual plane, when the time comes for
+attainment of immortality.
+
+Sex is an eternal verity. The entire Cosmos is bi-sexual. Everything in the
+visible universe; in the manifest, is the result of this universal
+principle. "As above so below," is a safe rule, as far as the IDEA goes.
+This hypothesis does not preclude _perfection_ above, of that which we find
+below, but any radical reversion or repudiation of nature is inconceivable.
+
+"Male and female created he them." This being true, male and female must
+they return to the source from which they sprung, completing the circle,
+and gaining what?
+
+_Consciousness of godhood; of completeness in counterpartal union. Not
+absorption_ of consciousness, but _union_, which is quite a different
+idea.
+
+Out of this counterpartal union a race of gods will be born, and these
+_supermen_, shall "inherit the earth" making it a "fit dwelling place for
+the gods."
+
+This earth is now being made fit. This fact may seem a far distant hope if
+we do not judge with the eyes of the seer, but its proof lies in the
+emancipation of woman. Its evidences are many and varied, but the awakening
+of woman is the _cause_.
+
+This awakening of woman constitutes the first rays of the dawn--that
+long-looked for Millenium, which many of us have regarded as a mere figure
+of speech, instead of as a literal truth.
+
+The argument is not that there has been no individual awakening until the
+present time; but that never before in the finite history of the world has
+there been such a general awakening, and as it is self evident that
+conditions will reflect the idea of the majority, the fact that woman is
+being given her rightful place in the sense-conscious life, proves that the
+earth will be a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than have
+hitherto constituted the majority.
+
+The numerous instances of Illumination, or cosmic consciousness which are
+forcing attention at the present time, prove that there is a
+_race-awakening_ to a realization of our unity with Om.
+
+Another point which we trust these pages will make clear is this: So-called
+"revelation" is neither a personal "discovery," nor any special act of a
+divine power. "God spake thus and so to me," is a phrase which the
+self-conscious initiate employs, _because he has lost sight of the_ cosmic
+light, or because he finds it expedient to use that phraseology in
+delivering the message of cosmic consciousness.
+
+If we will substitute the term "_initiation_," for the term "_revelation_,"
+we will have a clearer idea of the truth.
+
+Perhaps some of our readers will feel that the terms mean the same, but for
+the most part, those who have employed the word "revelation," have used it
+as implying that the plan of the cosmos was unfinished, and that the
+Creator, having found some person suitable to convey the latest decision
+to mankind, natural laws had been suspended and the revelation made.
+
+It is to correct this view, that we emphasize the distinction between the
+two words.
+
+The cosmos is complete. "As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever
+shall be, worlds without end."
+
+A circle is without beginning or end. We, in our individual consciousness
+may traverse this circle, but our failure to realize its completeness does
+not change the fact that it is finished.
+
+We can not add to the universal consciousness; nor take away therefrom.
+
+But we can extend our own area of consciousness from the narrow limits of
+the personal self, into the heights and depths of the atman and who shall
+set limitations to the power of the atman, the higher Self, when it has
+attained at-one-ment with Om?
+
+It is not the purpose of this book to trace the spiritual ascent of man
+further than to point out the wide gulf between the degrees of
+consciousness manifested in the lower animals and that of human
+consciousness; again tracing in the human, the ever-widening area of his
+cognition of the personal self, and its needs, to the awakening of the soul
+and its needs; which needs include the welfare of all living things as an
+absolute necessity to individual happiness.
+
+Altruism, therefore, is not a virtue. It is a means of
+self-preservation--without this degree of initiation into the boundless
+area of universal, or cosmic consciousness, we may not escape the karmic
+law.
+
+The revelations, therefore, upon which are founded the numerous religious
+systems, are comparable with the many and various degrees of initiation
+into THAT WHICH IS.
+
+They represent the degree which the initiate has taken in the lodge.
+
+It may be argued that this fact of individual initiation into the
+ever-present truth of Being, as into a lodge, offers no proof that this
+earth is to ultimately become a heaven. It may be that this planet is the
+outer-most lodge room and that there will never be a sufficient number of
+initiates to make the earth a fit dwelling place for a higher order of
+beings than now inhabit it. This may, indeed, be true. But all evidence
+tends toward the hope that even the planet itself will come under the
+regenerating power of Illumination.
+
+All prophecies embody this promise; all that we know of what materialists
+call "evolution" and occultists might well name "uncovering of
+consciousness," points to a time when "God's will," "shall be done on earth
+as it is in heaven."
+
+All who have attained to cosmic consciousness in whatever degree, have
+prophecied a _time_, when this blessing would descend upon every one; but
+the difficulty in adequately explaining this great gift seems also to have
+been the burden of their cry.
+
+Jesus sought repeatedly to describe to his hearers the wonders of the
+cosmic sense, but realized that he was too far in advance of the cyclic
+end; but even as at that time, a number of disciples were capable of
+receiving the Illumination, so to-day, a larger number are capable of
+attainment. If this number is great enough to bring about the
+regeneration--the perfecting--of the earth conditions, then it _must be
+accomplished_.
+
+We believe that it is. We make the claim that the Millenium _has dawned_;
+and although it may be many years before the light of the morning breaks
+into the full light of the day, yet the rays of the dawn are dispelling the
+world's long night.
+
+In his powerful and prophetic story "In the Days of the Comet," H.G. Wells,
+tells of a _great change_ that comes over the world following an
+atmospheric phenomenon in which a "green vapor" is generated in the clouds
+and falls upon the earth with instantaneous effect.
+
+As this peculiar vapor descends, it has the effect of putting every one to
+sleep; this sleep continues for three days and when people finally awake,
+their interior nature has undergone a complete change.
+
+Where before they "saw dimly," they now see clearly; the petty differences
+and quarrels are perceived in their true perspective. Instead of place, and
+power, and influence, and wealth, being all-important goals of ambition as
+before the change, every one now strives to be of service to the world.
+Love and kindness become greater factors than commercial expediency and
+business success.
+
+In many respects, Wells' description of the great change and its effect
+upon people, corresponds with the effect of Illumination.
+
+The sense of entering into the very heart of things; of growing plants; the
+birds and the little wood animals; the intense sympathy and understanding
+of life described by him, sounds like the effect of cosmic consciousness,
+as related by nearly all who have attained it.
+
+How the world's activities are resumed after the change, and under what
+vastly different incentives people work, form a part of the story, which is
+written as fiction, but which contains the seed of a great truth.
+
+This truth is expressed in science, as human achievement, and in religion
+as fulfilled prophecy, but the truth is the same.
+
+Both religion and science point to a _time_ when this earth will know
+freedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have hitherto
+been regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be completely
+controlled; not _may be_, but _will be_. Manual labor will cease. National
+Eugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to the inevitable
+conclusion, that no race can by any possibility be improved, while the most
+perfect physical species are reserved for armies.
+
+Awakening woman will refuse--indeed they are now refusing--to bear children
+to be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut of commercial
+competition.
+
+Those who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic
+consciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the
+"second coming of Christ," not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as a
+factor in human attainment.
+
+"For I am persuaded," said St. Paul, "that neither death nor life, nor
+angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
+powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God."
+
+If we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that
+we shall know, and _experience_ that boundless, deathless, perfect,
+satisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of
+immortality; which is an attribute (we may say the _one_ attribute) of
+God.
+
+We are not looking for the birth of _a_ Christ-child, but of _the_
+Christ-child; we are not looking for a second coming of _a_ man who shall
+be as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of _the_ man (homo),
+who shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of Nazareth; as was
+Guatama, the Buddha.
+
+That there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this
+consciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance of
+evidence is for a more general awakening to the light of Illumination.
+
+"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an
+eye," said St. Paul.
+
+The prophecy of "the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under
+her feet," is not of _a_ woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race of men
+who have attained cosmic consciousness.
+
+Nothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great light
+and love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.
+
+It will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are
+groping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation; of
+fear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal
+happiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or science or
+politics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic and empirical
+attempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.
+
+In the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED
+
+
+The chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the
+Orient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental
+systems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the goal of
+these efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.
+
+That is, Oriental religion--speaking in the broad sense--teaches that the
+disciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the
+Self, the _atman_, from the enchantment or delusion, the _maya_, of the
+external world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical
+death, _mrityu_, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily
+bring with it immortality.
+
+He well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence.
+Death does not of itself, change the condition of _maya_, in which the
+disciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation--_mukti_,
+which condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.
+
+Immortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,--yea, it must
+be _earned_.
+
+It is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality is
+an attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the divine
+essence of Brahman (The Absolute), _mukti_ may be attained by earnest
+seeking, and thus immortality be _realized_.
+
+This condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages and
+chelas, such for instance as glimpsing the _Brahmic splendor; mutki;
+samadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana_; becoming "_twice-born_."
+
+In recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of
+instances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described
+as "cosmic consciousness;" "illumination;" "liberation;" the "baptism of
+the Holy Ghost;" and becoming "immersed in the great white light."
+
+Baptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into religious
+systems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the necessity for
+Illumination in order that the soul may be "saved" from further
+incarnations--from further experience.
+
+The term cosmic consciousness as well describes this condition of the
+disciple, as any words can, perhaps, although the term liberation is more
+literal, since the influx of this state of being, is actually the
+liberation of the _atman_, the eternal Self, from the illusion of the
+external, or _maya_.
+
+Contrary to the general belief, instances of cosmic consciousness are not
+extremely rare, although they are not at all general. Particularly is this
+true in the Orient, where the chief concern as it were, of the people has
+for centuries been the realization of this state of liberation.
+
+The Oriental initiate in the study of religious practices, realizes that
+these devotions are for the sole purpose of attaining _mukti_, whereas in
+the Occident, the very general idea held by the religious devotee, is one
+of penance; of propitiation of Deity. This truth applies essentially to the
+initiate, the aspirant for priesthood, or guru-ship. No qualified priest or
+guru of the Orient harbors any doubt regarding the _object_, or purpose of
+religious practices. The attainment of the spiritual experience described
+in occidental language as "cosmic consciousness" is the goal.
+
+The goal is not a peaceful death; nor yet an humble entrance into heaven as
+a place of abode; nor is it the ultimate satisfying of a God of extreme
+justice; the "eye for an eye" God of the fear-stricken theologian.
+
+One purpose only, actuates the earnest disciple, like a glorious star
+lighting the path of the mariner on life's troublous sea. That goal is the
+attainment of that beatific state in which is revealed to the soul and the
+mind, the real and the unreal; the eternal substance of truth, and the
+shifting kaleidoscope of _maya_.
+
+Nor can there be any purpose in the pursuit of either religion or
+philosophy other than this attainment; nor does the unceasing practice of
+rites and ceremonies; of contemplation; renunciation; prayers; fasting;
+penance; devotion; service; adoration; absteminousness; or isolation,
+insure the attainment of this state of bliss. There is no bartering; no
+assurance of reward for good conduct. It is not as though one would say,
+"Ah, my child, if thou wouldst purchase liberation thou shalt follow
+this recipe."
+
+No golden promises of speedy entrance into Paradise may be given the
+disciple. Nor any exact rules, or laws of equation by virtue of which the
+goal shall be reached. Nor yet may any specific time be correctly estimated
+in which to serve a novitiate, before final initiation.
+
+Many indeed, attain a high degree of spirituality, and yet not have found
+the key of perfect liberation, although the goal may be not far off.
+
+Many, very many, on earth to-day, are living so close to the borderland of
+the new birth that they catch fleeting glimpses of the longed-for freedom,
+but the full import of its meaning does not dawn. There is yet another
+veil, however thin, between them and the Light.
+
+The Buddha spent seven years in an intense longing and desire to attain
+that liberation which brought him consciousness of godhood--deliverance
+from the sense of sin and sorrow that had oppressed him; immunity from the
+necessity for reincarnation.
+
+Jesus became a _Christ_ only after passing through the agonies of
+Gethsemane. A Christ is one who has found liberation; who has been born
+again in his individual consciousness into the inner areas of consciousness
+which are of the _atman_, and this attainment establishes his identity with
+The Absolute.
+
+All oriental religions and philosophies teach that this state of
+consciousness, is possible to all men; therefore all men are gods in
+embryo.
+
+But no philosophy or religion may promise the devotee the realization of
+this grace, nor yet can they deny its possible attainment to any.
+
+Strangely enough, if we estimate men by externalities, we discover that
+there is no measure by which the supra-conscious man may be measured. The
+obscure and unlearned have been known to possess this wonderful power which
+dissolves the seeming, and leaves only the contemplation of the Real.
+
+So also, men of great learning have experienced this rebirth; but it would
+seem that much cultivation of the intellectual qualities, unless
+accompanied by an humble and reverent spirit, frequently acts as a barrier
+to the realization of supra-consciousness.
+
+In "Texts of Taoism," Kwang-Tse, one of the Illuminati, writes:
+
+"He whose mind is thus grandly fixed, emits a heavenly light. In him who
+emits this heavenly light, men see the true man (i.e., the _atman_; the
+Self). When a man has cultivated himself to this point, thenceforth he
+remains constant in himself. When he is thus constant in himself, what is
+merely the human element will leave him, but Heaven will help him. Those
+whom Heaven helps, we call the sons of Heaven. Those who would, by
+learning, attain to this, seek for what they _can not learn_."
+
+Thus it will be seen, that according to the reports offered us by this wise
+man, that which men call learning guarantees no power regarding that area
+of consciousness which brings Illumination--liberation from enchantment, of
+the senses--_mukti_.
+
+Again, in the case of Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, although he left
+tomes of manuscript, it is asserted authoritatively, that he "possessed no
+learning" as that word is understood to mean accumulated knowledge.
+
+In "The Spiritual Maxims" of Brother Lawrence, the Carmelite monk, we find
+this:
+
+"You must realize that you reach God through the heart, and not through the
+mind."
+
+"Stupidity is closer to deliverance than intellect which innovates," is a
+phrase ascribed to a Mohammedan saint, and do not modern theologians report
+with enthusiasm, the unlettered condition of Jesus?
+
+In the Orient, the would-be initiate shuts out the voice of the world, that
+he may know the heart of the world. Many, very many, are the years of
+isolation and preparation which such an earnest one accepts in order that
+he may attain to that state of supra-consciousness in which "nothing is
+hidden that shall not be revealed" to his clarified vision.
+
+In the inner temples throughout Japan, for example, there are persons who
+have not only attained this state of consciousness, but who have also
+retained it, to such a degree and to such an extent, that no event of
+cosmic import may occur in any part of the world, without these illumined
+ones instantly becoming aware of its happening, and indeed, this knowledge
+is possessed by them _before_ the event has taken place in the external
+world, since their consciousness is not limited to time, space, or place
+(relative terms only), but is cosmic, or universal.
+
+This power is not comparable with what Occidental Psychism knows as
+"clairvoyance," or "spirit communication."
+
+The state of consciousness is wholly unlike anything which modern
+spiritualism reports in its phenomena. Far from being in any degree a
+suspension of consciousness as is what is known as mediumship, this power
+partakes of the quality of omniscience. It harmonizes with and blends into
+all the various degrees and qualities of consciousness in the cosmos, and
+becomes "at-one" with the universal heart-throb.
+
+A Zen student priest was once discovered lying face downward on the grass
+of the hill outside the temple; his limbs were rigid, and not a pulse
+throbbed in his tense and immovable form. He was allowed to remain
+undisturbed as long as he wished. When at length he stood up, his face wore
+an expression of terrible anguish. It seemed to have grown old. His _guru_
+stood beside him and gently asked: "What did you, my son?"
+
+"O, my Master," cried out the youth, "I have heard and felt all the burdens
+of the world. I know how the mother feels when she looks upon her starving
+babe. I have heard the cry of the hunted things in the woods; I have felt
+the horror of fear; I have borne the lashes and the stripes of the convict;
+I have entered the heart of the outcast and the shame-stricken; I have been
+old and unloved and I have sought refuge in self-destruction; I have lived
+a thousand lives of sorrow and strife and of fear, and O, my Master, I
+would that I could efface this anguish from the heart of the world."
+
+The _guru_ looked in wonder upon the young priest and he said, "It is well,
+my son. Soon thou shalt know that the burden is lifted."
+
+Great compassion, the attribute of the Lord Buddha, was the key which
+opened to this young student priest, the door of _mukti_, and although his
+compassion was not less, after he had entered into that blissful
+realization, yet so filled did he become with a sense of bliss and
+inexpressible realization of eternal love, that all consciousness of sorrow
+was soon wiped out.
+
+This condition of effacement of all identity, as it were, with sorrow, sin,
+and death, seems inseparable from the attainment of liberation, and has
+been testified to by all who have recorded their emotions in reaching this
+state of consciousness. In other respects, the acquisition of this
+supra-consciousness varies greatly with the initiate.
+
+In all instances, there is also an overwhelming conviction of the
+transitory character of the external world, and the emptiness of all
+man-bestowed honors and riches.
+
+A story is told of the Mohammedan saint Fudail Ibn Tyad, which well
+illustrates this. The Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, learning of the extreme
+simplicity and asceticism of his life exclaimed, "O, Saint, how great is
+thy self-abnegation."
+
+To which the saint made answer: "Thine is greater." "Thou dost but jest,"
+said the Caliph in wonderment. "Nay, not so, great Caliph," replied the
+saint. "I do but make abnegation of this world which is transitory, and
+thou makest abnegation of the next which will last forever."
+
+However, the phrase, "self-abnegation," predicates the concept of
+sacrifice; the giving up of something much to be desired, while, as a
+matter of truth, there arises in the consciousness of the Illumined One, a
+natural contempt for the "baubles" of externality; therefore there is no
+sacrifice. Nothing is given up. On the contrary, the gain is infinitely
+great.
+
+Manikyavasayar, one of the great Tamil saints of Southern India, addressed
+a gathering of disciples thus:
+
+"Why go about sucking from each flower, the droplet of honey, when the
+heavy mass of pure and sweet honey is available?" By which he questioned
+why they sought with such eagerness the paltry pleasures of this world,
+when the state of cosmic consciousness might be attained.
+
+The thought of India, is however, one of ceaseless repudiation of all that
+is external, and the Hindu conception of _mukti_, or cosmic consciousness,
+differs in many respects from that reported by the Illumined in other
+countries, even while all reports have many emotions in common.
+
+Again we find that reports of the cosmic influx, differ with the century in
+which the Illumined one lived. This may be accounted for in the fact that
+an experience so essentially spiritual can not be accurately expressed in
+terms of sense consciousness.
+
+Far different from the Hindu idea, for example, is the report of a woman
+who lived in Japan in the early part of the nineteenth century. This woman
+was very poor and obscure, making her frugal living by braiding mats. So
+intense was her consciousness of unity with all that is, that on seeing a
+flower growing by the wayside, she would "enter into its spirit," as she
+said, with an ecstacy of enjoyment, that would cause her to become
+momentarily entranced.
+
+She was known to the country people around her as _Sho-Nin_, meaning
+literally "above man in consciousness."
+
+It is said that the wild animals of the wood, were wont to come to her
+door, and she talked to them, as though they were humans. An injured hare
+came limping to her door in the early morning hours and "spoke" to her.
+
+Upon which, she arose and dressed, and opened the door of her dwelling with
+words of greeting, as she would use to a neighbor.
+
+She washed the soil from the injured foot, and "loved" it back to
+wholeness, so that when the hare departed there was no trace of injury.
+
+She declared that she spoke to and was answered by, the birds and the
+flowers, and the animals, just as she was by persons.
+
+Indeed, among the high priests of the Jains, and the Zens (sects which may
+be classed as highly developed Occultists), entering into animal
+consciousness, is a power possessed by all initiates.
+
+Passing along a highway near a Zen temple, the driver of a cart was stopped
+by a priest, who gently said: "My good man, with some of the money you have
+in your purse please buy your faithful horse a bucket of oats. He tells me
+he has been so long fed on rice straw that he is despondent."
+
+To the Occidental mind this will doubtless appear to be the result of keen
+observation, the priest being able to see from the appearance of the animal
+that he was fed on straw. They will believe, perhaps, that the priest
+expressed his observations in the manner described to more fully impress
+the driver, but this conclusion will be erroneous. The priest, possessing
+the enlarged or all-inclusive consciousness which in the west is termed
+"cosmic," actually did speak to the horse.
+
+Nor is this fact one which the western mind should be unable to follow.
+Science proves the fact of consciousness existing in the atoms composing
+even what has been termed _inanimate_ objects. How much more comprehensible
+to our understanding is the consciousness of an animate organism, even
+though this organism be not more complex than the horse.
+
+There is a Buddhist monastery built high on the cliff overlooking the Japan
+Inland sea, which is called a "life-saving" monastery.
+
+The priests who preside over this temple, possess the power of extending
+their consciousness over many miles of sea, and on a vibration attuned to a
+pitch above the sound of wind and wave, so that they can hear a call of
+distress from fishermen who need their help.
+
+This fact being admitted, might be accounted for by the uninitiated, as a
+wonderfully "trained ear," which by cultivation and long practice detects
+sounds at a seemingly miraculous distance.
+
+But the priests know how many are in a wrecked boat, and can describe them,
+and "converse" with them, although the fishermen are not aware that they
+have "talked" to the priest.
+
+Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the latest incarnation of God in India, and
+the master to whom the late Swami Vivekananda gives such high praise and
+devotion, lived almost wholly in that exalted state of consciousness which
+would appear to be more essentially _spiritual_, than _cosmic_ in the
+strict sense of the latter word, since _cosmic_ should certainly imply
+all-inclusiveness, rather than wholly _spiritual_ (spiritual being here
+used as an extremely high vibration of the cosmos).
+
+We learn that Sri Ramakrishna was a man comparatively unlettered, and yet
+his insight was so marvelous, his consciousness so exalted that the most
+learned pundits honored and respected him as one who had attained unto the
+goal of all effort--liberation, _mukti_, while to many persons throughout
+India to-day, and indeed throughout the whole world, he is looked upon as
+an incarnation of Krishna.
+
+It is related of Sri Ramakrishna that his yearning for Truth (his mother,
+he called it), was so great that he finally became unfit to conduct
+services in the temple, and retired to a little wood near by. Here he
+seemed to be lost in concentration upon the one thought, to such an extent
+that had it not been for devoted attendants, who actually put food into his
+mouth, the sage would have starved to death. He had so completely lost all
+thought of himself and his surroundings that he could not tell when the day
+dawned or when the night fell. So terrible was his yearning for the voice
+of Truth that when day after day passed and the light he longed for had not
+come to him he would weep in agony.
+
+Nor could any words or argument dissuade him from his purpose.
+
+He once said to Swami Vivekananda:
+
+"My son, suppose there is a bag of gold in yonder room, and a robber is in
+the next room. Do you think that robber can sleep? He cannot. His mind will
+be always thinking how he can enter that room and obtain possession of
+that gold. Do you think, then, that a man firmly persuaded that there is a
+reality behind all these appearances, that there is a God, that there is
+One who never dies, One who is Infinite Bliss, a bliss compared with which
+these pleasures of the senses are simply playthings,--can rest contented
+without struggling to attain it? No, he will become mad with longing."
+
+At length, after almost twelve years unceasing effort, and undivided
+purpose Sri Ramakrishna was rewarded with what has been described as "a
+torrent of spiritual light, deluging his mind and giving him peace."
+
+This wonderful insight he displayed in all the after years of his earthly
+mission, and he not only attained glimpses of the cosmic conscious state,
+but he also retained the Illumination, and the power to impart to a great
+degree, the realization of that state of being which he himself possessed.
+
+Like the Lord Buddha, this Indian sage also describes his experience as
+accompanied by "unbounded light." Speaking of this strange and overpowering
+sense of being immersed in light, Sri Ramakrishna described it thus: "The
+living light to which the earnest devotee is drawn doth not burn. It is
+like the light coming from a gem, shining yet soft, cool and soothing. It
+burneth not. It giveth peace and joy."
+
+This effect of great light, is an almost invariable accompaniment of
+supra-consciousness, although there are instances of undoubted cosmic
+consciousness in which the realization has been a more gradual growth,
+rather than a sudden influx, in which the phenomenon of _light_ is not
+greatly marked.
+
+Mohammed is said to have swooned with the "intolerable splendor" of the
+flood of white light which broke upon him, after many days of constant
+prayer and meditation, in the solitude of the cavern outside the gates of
+Mecca.
+
+Similar is the description of the attainment of cosmic consciousness, given
+by the Persian mystics, although it is evident that the Sufis regarded the
+result as reunion with "the other half" of the soul in exile.
+
+The burden of their cry is love, and "union with the beloved" is the
+longed-for goal of all earthly strife and experience.
+
+Whether this reunion be considered from the standpoint of finding the other
+half of the perfect one, as exemplified in the present-day search for the
+soul mate, or whether it be considered in the light of a spiritual merging
+into the One Eternal Absolute is the question of questions.
+
+Certainly the terms used to express this state of spiritual ecstacy are
+words which might readily be applied to lovers united in marriage.
+
+One thing is certain, the Sufis did not personify the Deity, except
+symbolically, and the "beloved one" is impartially referred to as masculine
+or feminine, even as modern thought has come to realize God as
+Father-Mother.
+
+In all mystical writings, we find the conclusion that there is no _one way_
+in which the seeker may find reunion with The Beloved.
+
+"The ways of God are as the number of the souls of men," declare the
+followers of Islam, and "for the love that thou wouldst find demands the
+sacrifice of self to the end that the heart may be filled with the passion
+to stand within the Holy of Holies, in which alone the mysteries of the
+True Beloved can be revealed unto thee," is also a Sufi sentiment, although
+it might also be Christian or Mohammedan, or Vedantan.
+
+Indeed, if the student of Esotericism, searches deeply enough, he will find
+a surprising unity of sentiment, and even of expression, in all the variety
+of religions and philosophies, including Christianity.
+
+It has been said that the chief difference between the message of Jesus
+and those of the holy men of other races, and times, lies in the fact that
+Jesus, more than his predecessors, emphasized the importance of love. But
+consider the following lines from Jami, the Persian mystic:
+
+  "Gaze, till gazing out of gazing
+  Grew to BEING HER I gazed on,
+  She and I no more, but in one
+  Undivided Being blended.
+  All that is not One must ever
+  Suffer with the wound of absence;
+  And whoever in Love's city
+  Enters, finds but room for one
+  And but in Oneness, union."
+
+These lines express that religious ecstacy which results from spiritual
+aspiration, or they express the union of the individual soul with its mate
+according to the viewpoint. In any event, they are an excellent description
+of the realization of that much-to-be-desired consciousness which is
+fittingly described in Occidental phraseology as "cosmic consciousness."
+Whether this realization is the result of union with the soul's "other
+half," or whether it is an impersonal reunion with the Causeless Cause, The
+Absolute, from which we are earth wanderers, is not the direct purpose of
+this volume to answer, although the question will be answered, and that
+soon.
+
+From whence and by whom we are not prepared to say, but the "signs and
+portents" which precede the solution of this problem have already made
+their appearance.
+
+Christian students of the Persian mystics, take exception to statements
+like the above, and regard them as "erotic," rather than spiritual.
+
+Mahmud Shabistari employs the following symbolism, but unquestionably seeks
+to express the same emotion:
+
+  "Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart,
+  Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
+  When you depart out, he will enter in,
+  In you, void of your_self_, will he display his beauty."
+
+The "Song of Solomon" is in a similar key, and whether the wise king
+referred to that state of _samadhi_ which accompanies certain experiences
+of cosmic consciousness, or whether he was reciting love-lyrics, must be a
+moot question.
+
+The personal note in the famous "song" has been accounted for by many
+commentators, on the grounds that Solomon had only partial glimpses of the
+supra-conscious state, and that, in other words, he frequently "backslid"
+from divine contemplation, and allowed his yearning for the state of
+liberation, to express itself in love of woman.
+
+An attribute of the possession of cosmic consciousness is wisdom, and this
+Solomon is said to have possessed far beyond his contemporaries, and to a
+degree incompatible with his years. It is said that he built and
+consecrated a "temple for the Lord," and that, as a result of his extreme
+piety and devotion to God, he was vouchsafed a vision of God.
+
+As these reports have come to us through many stages of church history and
+as Solomon lived many centuries before the birth of Jesus, it seems hardly
+fitting to ascribe the raptures of Solomon as typifying the love of the
+Church (the bride) for Christ (the bridegroom).
+
+Rather, it is easier to believe, the wisdom of the king argues a degree of
+consciousness far beyond that of the self-conscious man, and he rose to the
+quality of spiritual realization, expressing itself in a love and longing
+for that soul communion which may be construed as quite personal, referring
+to a personal, though doubtless non-corporeal union with his spiritual
+complement.
+
+Although the pronoun "he" is used, signifying that Solomon's longing was
+what theology terms "spiritual" and consequently impersonal, meaning God
+The Absolute, yet we suggest that the use of the masculine pronoun may be
+due entirely to the translators and commentators (of whom there have been
+many), and that, in their zeal to reconcile the song with the
+ecclesiastical ideas of spirituality, the gender of the pronoun has been
+changed. We submit that the idea is more than possible, and indeed in view
+of the avowed predilections of the ancient king and sage, it is highly
+probable.
+
+He sings:
+
+  "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth
+  For his love is better than wine."
+
+Again he cries:
+
+"Behold thou art fair my love, behold thou art fair, thou _hast dove's
+eyes_."
+
+The realization of _mukti_, i.e., the power of the _atman_ to transcend the
+physical, is thus expressed by Solomon, clearly indicating that he had
+found liberation:
+
+"My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'Rise up my love my fair one, and come
+away. For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone.
+
+"'The flowers appear upon the earth; the time of singing of birds has come,
+and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
+
+"'The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender
+grapes gives a goodly smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.'"
+
+It is assumed that these lines do not refer to a personal hegira, but
+rather to the act of withdrawing the Self from the things of the outer
+life, and fixing it in contemplation upon the larger life, the
+supra-conscious life, but there is no reason to doubt that they may refer
+to a longing to commune with the beautiful and tender things of nature.
+
+Another point to be noted is that in the spring and early summer it is with
+difficulty that the mind can be made to remain fixed upon the petty details
+of everyday business life. The awakening of the earth from the long cold
+sleep of winter is typical of the awakening of the mind from its hypnotisms
+of external consciousness.
+
+Instinctively, there arises a realization of the divinity of creative
+activity, and the mind soars up to the higher vibrations and awakes to the
+real purpose of life, more or less fully, according to individual
+development.
+
+This has given rise to the assumption, predicated by some writers on cosmic
+consciousness, that this state of consciousness is attained in the early
+summer months, and the instances cited would seem to corroborate this
+assumption.
+
+But, as a poet has sung, "it is always summer in the soul," so there is no
+specific time, nor age, in which individual cosmic consciousness may be
+attained.
+
+A point which we suggest, and which is verified by the apparent connection
+between the spring months, and the full realization of cosmic
+consciousness, is the point that this phenomenon comes through
+contemplation and desire for love. Whether this love be expressed as the
+awakening of creative life, as in nature's springtime, or whether it be
+expressed as love of the lover for his bride; the dove for his mate; the
+mother for her child, or as the religious devotee for the Lord, the key
+that unlocks the door to illumination of body, soul and spirit, is Love,
+"the maker, the monarch and savior of all," but whether this love in its
+fullness of perfection may be found in that perfect spiritual mating, which
+we see exemplified in the tender, but ardent mating of the dove (the symbol
+of Purity and Peace), or whether it means spiritual union with the Absolute
+is not conclusive.
+
+The mystery of Seraphita, Balzac's wonderful creation, is an evidence that
+Balzac had glimpses of that perfect union, which gives rise to the
+experience called cosmic consciousness.
+
+It is well to remember that in every instance of cosmic consciousness, the
+person experiencing this state, finds it practically impossible to fully
+describe the state, or its exact significance.
+
+Therefore, when these efforts have been made, we must expect to find the
+description colored very materially by the habit of _thought_, of the
+person having the experience.
+
+Balzac was essentially religious, but he was also extremely suggestible,
+and, until very recently, Theology and Religion were supposed to be
+synonymous, or at least to walk hand in hand. Balzac's early training and
+his environment, as well as the thought of the times in which he lived,
+were calculated to inspire in him the fallacious belief that God would have
+us renounce the love of our fellow beings, for love of Him.
+
+Balzac makes "Louis Lambert" renounce his great passion for Pauline, and
+seems to suggest that this renunciation led to the subsequent realization
+of cosmic consciousness, which he unquestionably experienced.
+
+Nor is it possible to say that it did not, since renunciation of the lower
+must inevitably lead to the higher, and we give up the lesser only that we
+may enjoy the greater.
+
+In "Seraphita" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that
+spiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result
+of a perfect and complete "mating," between the sexes, on the spiritual
+plane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also
+elsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or
+God.
+
+The former view is individual, while the latter is impersonal, and may, or
+may not, involve absorption of individual consciousness.
+
+In subsequent chapters we shall again refer to Balzac's Illumination as
+expressed in his writings, and will now take up the question of man's
+relation to the universe, as it appears in the light of cosmic
+consciousness, or liberation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN
+
+
+The riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower
+part animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the
+growth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal),
+consciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman's head and
+breast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.
+
+No higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the
+concept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a
+symbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and
+sometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.
+
+The point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or
+more unescapable than that of man's growth from sin (limitations) to
+god-hood--freedom.
+
+Whether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of
+upward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether
+it is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man's fall from godhood to
+sin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by
+perfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the
+animal stage of consciousness.
+
+Artists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual
+things, must still use the human idea for a model--refined, spiritualized,
+supra-human, but still man.
+
+It is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of
+growth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with
+equal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals
+called a nation; and to worlds, or planets.
+
+The evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through
+the various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he
+has established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which
+is called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.
+
+A Japanese term is _Dai Zikaku_. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say
+_Daigo Tettei_, and one who has attained to this superior phase of
+consciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally "above man."
+
+Emerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The
+Oversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the
+term Universal Energy.
+
+Emerson was a seer; Spencer was a scientist, which word, until recently,
+was a synonym for materialist.
+
+But what are words?
+
+Mere symbols of consciousness, and subject to change and evolvement, as
+man's consciousness evolves. The student of truth will recognize in these
+different words, exactly the same meaning. The "eternal energy from which
+all things proceed" is a phrase identical with "The Oversoul," or "The
+Absolute," from which all manifestation comes.
+
+Man's evolution, then, is an evolution in consciousness, from the
+subjective _awareness_ of the monad to a realization of the entire cosmos.
+
+Each phase of life is a specific degree of consciousness and each
+successive degree brings the individual nearer to the realization of the
+_sum_ of all degrees of consciousness, into godhood--the highest degree
+which we can conceive.
+
+Such, briefly, is a statement of that phenomenon which is attracting the
+attention of occidental students of psychology, and which has been
+fittingly termed "the attainment of cosmic consciousness."
+
+The phrase expresses a degree of consciousness which includes the entire
+cosmos--not only this planet called earth, and everything thereon, but also
+the spheres of the Constellation.
+
+Not that this degree of consciousness carries with it the power to express
+in words, that which it is. In fact, the one who has had this marvelous
+awakening, cannot adequately describe, or even _retain_, a full
+comprehension of what it signifies.
+
+All-inclusive knowledge would indeed, preclude the possibility of
+expression. Therefore, even if it were possible to retain in the finite
+mind, the full realization of cosmic consciousness, words could not be
+found in which to express it to others.
+
+Thought is the creator of words, but thought is but the material which the
+mind employs, and cosmic consciousness transcends the mind, engulfs the
+soul, and reaches to the trackless areas of Spirit.
+
+It may be doubted if any one may retain a full realization of cosmic
+consciousness, and remain in the physical body.
+
+Great and wonderful as have been the experiences of those who have sought
+to relate their sensations, it is probable that these flashes of insight
+have been in the nature of cosmic _perception_, and have lacked full
+realization.
+
+Of those who have had glimpses of that larger area of consciousness which
+includes an awareness of eternal unity with the cosmos, there are, we
+believe, many more than students of the subject have any idea of.
+
+This century marks a distinct epoch in what is called evolution.
+
+The end of a _kalpa_, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the
+presence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.
+
+By their very presence these enlightened ones arouse in all who are ready
+for the experience a glimpse of that state of being to which all souls are
+destined, and to which all shall ultimately attain.
+
+A time when "gods shall walk the earth" is a prophecy which all nations
+have heard and looked forward to.
+
+That time is now. We see the effect of their presence in Peace Conferences;
+in abolition of child labor; in prison reform; in the amalgamation of the
+races; in attempts at social equality; in National Eugenic Societies, and
+above all, as we have before stated, in the Emancipation of Woman. In fact,
+it is seen in all the various ways in which the higher consciousness finds
+expression.
+
+One of the characteristic signs of this awakening, the Millenium Dawn, as
+it has been named, lies in a very general optimism shining through the
+mists of doubt and unrest and inexpressible desire, which accompany the
+new birth in consciousness.
+
+Amid the seeming chaos of present day conditions is it not easy to discern
+the coming of that dawn of which all great ones of earth have foretold--a
+time when "the earth shall be made a fit habitation for the gods"?
+
+"The heavens" is a term employed to specify the Constellation which is
+composed of planets and stars, but we use the term "Heaven" also to mean a
+state of happiness and bliss attainable through certain methods, a
+consideration of which we will take up later.
+
+The immediate point is that this planet is being prepared for a position in
+the solar system consistent with that which is the abode of the
+gods--Heaven.
+
+This proposition is made in its literal meaning. Corroborative of this
+statement, which is consistent with all prophecies, is the information
+recently given to the world, by Camille Flammarion, and other great
+astronomers, that "the earth is changing its position in the heavens at an
+astonishing rate." The idea that "there shall be no night there," is
+foreshadowed by the estimate that this change will give to the earth a
+perpetual and uniform light, and heat.
+
+The New Thought preachment of physical immortality is but a faint and
+imperfect perception of this time, when "there shall be no death," because
+the animal man, subject to change, shall give place to the changeless,
+deathless, spiritual man; not through cataclysms, and destruction, but
+through the natural birth into a higher consciousness.
+
+The Occidental mind is easily affrighted by a name. Perhaps we should not
+specify the Occidental mind, but rather the mind of man among all races is
+easily put to sleep by the hypnotism of a word.
+
+The word Pantheism is a bugaboo to the Occidentalist. He fears the
+destruction of the Monistic faith, if he admits that man is in essence a
+god, and that therefore there are many gods in the one God, even as there
+are many members to the one physical organism.
+
+Nevertheless all literature, whether sacred or profane, teaches the
+attainment of godhood by Man. This can not mean other than the attainment
+of _realization_ of godhood, by the individual and the _retention_ of this
+realization to the end that reincarnation shall cease and identity with the
+cosmic, principle, be established, beyond further loss, or doubt, or
+strife, or death.
+
+This is what it means to attain to cosmic consciousness. It is inclusive
+consciousness. It is not absorption into the vast unknown, in the sense of
+annihilation of identity. It is consciousness _plus_, not minus.
+
+An ancient writing says:
+
+"And thou shalt awake as from a long dream. Thou shalt be like the perfume
+arising from the flower in which it has been so long enclosed. And thou
+wilt float above the opened flower. And thou wilt say 'There is time before
+me in eternity.'"
+
+There is nothing in the testimony of those who have described, as best they
+could, their emotions upon attainment of this consciousness, which would
+argue the absorption of the individual soul into The Absolute.
+
+There is no testimony to argue that the attainment of cosmic consciousness,
+carries with it anything approaching annihilation of _sentiency_.
+
+Rather it would seem to testify to an acceleration of all the higher
+faculties.
+
+That this would be a more apt interpretation may be seen by comparing the
+different reports of those experiencing the phenomenon of Illumination.
+
+Nevertheless there has been much controversy regarding the meaning of the
+terms nirvana; samadhi; dai zikaku, etc.--words expressing the condition
+which we are considering under the phrase cosmic consciousness.
+
+
+WHAT IS NIRVANA?
+
+Let us consider briefly, what is meant by Nirvana, and see if it is not
+highly probable that the word describes the state of consciousness which
+we are considering, referring later on to the question, and its
+interpretation by the various schools of religion and philosophy.
+
+It is apparent that the most learned sages of the Orient fail to agree as
+to the exact meaning of Nirvana. Occidental writers and leaders of the
+Theosophical philosophy, differ somewhat as to its import, but at the same
+time we find enough unity on this point to make it evident that the state
+of Nirvana is a desirable attainment--the goal of the religious enthusiast.
+
+Going back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded
+religion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally "the way of the
+gods," meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the
+path that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented
+by godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to _know_, much less to
+express?
+
+Since we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the
+attainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we
+know of merely _human_ nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss
+of identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as
+_absorption_. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism
+and Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous,
+and comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of
+consciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe,
+is identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.
+
+The very fact that external life represents so universal a struggle for
+attainment of this state of being, or higher consciousness, indicates at
+least, even if it does not actually _guarantee_ a fuller, deeper, more
+complete state of consciousness than hitherto enjoyed, rather than an
+absorption or annihilation of any of that dearly bought consciousness which
+distinguishes the self from its environment, and which says with conviction
+"I am."
+
+It is admitted that those who have experienced liberation, illumination,
+_mukti_, have reported their sensations with such relative vagueness and
+with such apparent variance of conclusion as regards the _meaning_ of the
+experience that the reader is left to his own interpretation of the
+character of that state of being, other than a general uniformity of
+description.
+
+Referring to the pleasure which the lower nature feels under certain
+conditions, the late Swami Vivekananda says:
+
+"The whole idea of this nature is to make the soul know that it is entirely
+separate from nature and when the soul knows this, nature has no more
+attraction for it. But the whole of nature vanishes only for that man who
+has become free. There will always remain an infinite number of others for
+whom nature will go on working."
+
+But did Vivekananda employ the phrase "nature has no more attraction for
+him," to describe the sensation of unappreciativeness of the wonders of the
+natural world? We think not. Rather the gentle-hearted sage meant to report
+the fact that the soul is no longer _held in bondage_ to the external
+world, when it has once attained supra-consciousness.
+
+If this expression referred to the pleasure the true lover of nature feels
+in the out-of-doors, he might well say "I trust that I shall never attain
+to that state of consciousness. Or if attainment be compulsory, then shall
+I prolong the time of accomplishment as long as possible."
+
+And who would blame him? Why should we strive for the attainment of a state
+of being described so unattractively as to give us the impression of entire
+_loss_ of so enjoyable and unselfish a sensation as love of nature?
+
+The Vedantic idea, according to interpreted translations is that out of The
+Absolute, the All (Om), we _come_, and therefore back to it we go, being
+now in our present state of consciousness, en route, as it were to return.
+
+But returning to _what_? That is the unanswerable problem of all religions;
+all philosophies; all science. If we _return_ to a void, such as some
+interpreters of the Vedas declare, then surely this urge within mankind
+toward this annihilatory state would hardly be expected. It would be
+inconsistent with that instinct of self-preservation which we are told is
+the first law of nature.
+
+Compared to this Vedantic concept of the Absolute, the Christian's simple,
+and very empirical ideal of eternal happiness is preferable.
+
+To walk streets paved with gold and play a harp incessantly while chanting
+doleful praises to a Deity who ought to become wearied of the never-ceasing
+adulation, would still be a more desirable goal of our strife, than that so
+inaccurately and unattractively described by many students of Oriental
+religions and philosophies as the state _nirvana_, or _samadhi_.
+
+Again quoting from Vivekananda's Raja Yoga:
+
+"There are not wanting persons who think that this manifest state (our
+present existence) is the highest state of man. Thinkers of great caliber
+are of the opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated
+Being, and this differentiated state is _higher than the Absolute_."
+
+Although as Vivekananda says there are thinkers who make this claim, the
+idea does not find ready acceptance among theologians, either Eastern, or
+Western. Neither do philosophers, as a general thing incline to adopt this
+view. The reason for this general disinclination is not difficult of
+discovery. It is due to the present state of man on this planet.
+
+If man, as we see and know mankind, is the highest state of Being (not
+merely of manifestation, but of Being) "then," they say, "we have nothing
+to hope for."
+
+But have we not? May we not hope that man will _manifest_, on this planet a
+fuller realization, of that which he _is_ in _Being_, and that, far from
+dissolving what consciousness he has, he will but _plus_ this consciousness
+by a larger--an all-embracing consciousness that shall make earth a fit
+habitation for god-like men?
+
+In Vivekananda's Raja Yoga we find the following:
+
+"There was an old solution that man, after death, remained the same; that
+all his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever. Logically
+stated, this means that man's goal is the world; this world meaning earth
+carried to a state higher and with elimination of its evils is the state
+they call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is absurd and puerile
+because it cannot be. There cannot be good without evil, or evil without
+good. To live in a world where there is all good and no evil, is what
+Sanskrit logicians call a 'dream in the air.'"
+
+It is not necessary to argue here that there is no such thing as positive
+evil.
+
+St. Paul said: "I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean of itself;
+save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is
+unclean."
+
+And again we are assured that "there is nothing good or bad, but thinking
+makes it so;" which means that evil has no more foundation in reality than
+has thought, and thought is ever-changing; transitory. Evil therefore may
+be entirely eliminated by thought, since it is created by thought.
+
+That there is a condition of mankind which has been alluded to as "evil" is
+self-evident. The term has been employed to describe a condition of either
+an individual, or a society, or a nation or a race, wherein there is in
+harmony; disease; unhappiness. Anything that makes for suffering on any
+plane of consciousness, may be termed "evil" as here used.
+
+Let us consider for a moment if it be illogical to imagine a world in which
+this in harmony has been eliminated. Imagine a family in which all the
+members radiate love and unselfish consideration. Add to this, or we may
+say complementary to this, we have perfect health and prosperity; and over
+and above all we have a conviction of immortality, eliminating doubt and
+fear and worry as to future sorrows or partings, with no knowledge that
+there are others in the world suffering.
+
+Do we not find it quite possible, to say the least, and even desirable, to
+live in such a family, particularly if we had previously acquired a
+knowledge of that which is evil and that which is good--merely terms used
+to describe limited, or enlarged consciousness.
+
+If we admit the desirability of living in such a family, why not in such a
+world? "Logically stated," says the Hindu swami, "this means that man's
+goal is this world (earth planet); carried to a state higher and with the
+elimination of its evils, this world is the state (place) they call
+heaven."
+
+Again we must question. Why not?
+
+This planet we call earth, is a great and marvelous work, whether it be the
+work of an abstract God, or whether it be the work of the god in Man.
+
+And whether this earth be the gift of an abstract God, or whether it be
+the generating bed of the life now upon it, the fact remains that we have
+no business to despise the gift, or the work of self-generation. Our
+business is to enhance its beauties and eliminate its ugliness. Why have we
+prayed that the will of God which is Love, "be done on earth as it is in
+the heavens," if we despise the planet and hope to leave it?
+
+Although the general impression given in all religious systems is that
+the perfected soul leaves this earth, yet there is nothing in any of them
+to prove that it does so, or if it has hitherto, that it shall continue so
+to do. We have no right to assume that the outer life--the external,
+manifested life which we perceive with our physical senses, is all there is
+to this earth and that when we leave this outer life, we go to some other
+_place_. The _invisible_ life on this planet is unquestionably far greater
+than the _visible_ but both visible and invisible doubtless belong to the
+planet earth.
+
+The Absolute, presumably occupies all space, and therefore it may as
+reasonably be postulated that this state of Nirvana or Samadhi, may be
+entered within the area of this planet's vibrations, as in that of the
+other planets. The finite mind cannot conceive of a state of being apart
+from motion, space or time, even though these concepts are crude in their
+relation to the state of consciousness to which the sum of all
+consciousness is tending, whether the individual would, or not.
+
+We speak of "the heavens" when we refer to the immeasurable, and little
+known region of the solar system, and we use the same term when we refer to
+a state of being in which the perfected soul of man will finally enter. And
+this term implies that when we are thus in heaven, we are _with_ God, if
+not _absorbed into_ God.
+
+Jesus, the master, taught the coming of the kingdom of God _on earth_ and
+urged mankind to _pray_ for its coming, asking that the will of God
+(or gods) be done on earth as it is in the heavens, from which it is not
+illogical to infer that the earth itself, as a planet, is not outside the
+pale of that blissful state which we ascribe to God, and which, at the same
+time, we expect to enter without being swallowed up in the sense that we
+lose that consciousness which cognizes itself as an eternal verity.
+
+If then, the "heavens" as applied to the planets revolving above the earth
+in the solar system, and "Heaven" as a term used to describe a state of
+happiness, bliss, samadhi, nirvana, or "life with God," be synonymous it
+may reasonably be inferred that in the solar system are planets upon which
+live sentient beings, in a state to which we on earth, are seeking to
+attain; a state wherein so-called evil has been eliminated and the good
+retained.
+
+In fact, we may see with none too prophetic eyes the elimination of evil
+right here in the visible. All who have attained a glimpse of Illumination
+have reported the loss of the "sense of sin and death," and have retained
+this feeling of security and "all-is-well-ness" as long as they have lived
+thereafter.
+
+From the old conception of "evil" as a positive, opposing and independent
+force, modern thought, in all its branches, namely science; religion;
+social evolution, and philosophy, has arrived at the conclusion that evil
+is not a power or force in and of itself, but that it is evidence of a
+limited degree of consciousness which sees only one side of a subject--only
+a limited area of an infinitely wide and varied manifestation of the one
+supreme consciousness. Therefore, it is, that evil per se, does not exist
+as power, but that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.
+
+The cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in
+an extension of individual consciousness.
+
+That this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind
+expands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact
+with each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more
+general. Almost every one readily admits that the world is "growing
+better," as they express it.
+
+This means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened,
+deepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that
+the happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one
+human life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (_mukti_, which
+can mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the
+many paths of selflessness.
+
+Up through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness
+toward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the
+Illumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present
+state; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path,
+and to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record
+the fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the
+future of this earth.
+
+But who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of
+consciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?
+
+The planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of
+astronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term
+"morality" in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth
+itself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.
+
+In this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all
+over the earth's surface; and with the cessation of war, and of
+competition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes
+will cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book,
+to a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come
+a realization of the _nothingness_ of sin and consequent suffering.
+
+The trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of
+consciousness of earth's inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the
+suffering which afflicts human life.
+
+Those who have attained to the state of cosmic consciousness in both
+Occidental and Oriental instances of this perception, have reported an
+abiding sense of rest and peace and satisfaction--a condition which we
+associate with accepted ideals of heaven as taught in Occidental creeds
+and among some schools of Oriental philosophers, and sects of religious
+worship.
+
+There is a far greater unity of idea between the Oriental and the
+Occidental methods and systems, as to the _goal_ of ultimate attainment
+than is generally believed, or understood.
+
+The highest expression of Japanese Buddhism differs from Hindu Buddhism and
+from Vedanta, and the many other forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, in
+the same way that the Japanese, as a nation, differ from their Hindu
+brothers.
+
+The Japanese emphasize, more than do the Hindus, the preservation of the
+nation, and to this end, they are called more "practical" minded, but with
+the Japanese, as with all the Orientals, we find an intense contempt for
+any one who would seek to preserve his physical existence, or hesitate at
+any personal sacrifice.
+
+This unwritten code has its origin, as have all Oriental traditions and
+concepts, in the teachings of religious systems. According to Oriental
+ethics, the person is very low in the scale of consciousness, when he
+considers his physical body as of comparative consequence, when the
+question of expediency, or of the welfare of his country, is in the
+balance.
+
+Nevertheless, Japan has offered, far more than has India, a fertile field
+for the growth of materialism, owing to the fact that underlying the
+apparent observance of and loyalty to, religious practices, the Japanese
+temperament inclines to a practical application of the wisdom attained
+through religious instruction.
+
+Therefore we find among the Illumined Ones of Japanese history, sages who
+taught the attainment of liberation through paths which are not generally
+accepted by interpreters of Hinduism.
+
+For example, among the orthodox Sintoists, (the original religion of the
+Japanese, before the advent of Buddhism), we find that cleanliness of mind
+and body, was taught as the prime essential to attainment of unity with
+_Kami_, rather than contemplation, meditation and isolation, as with the
+Hindus.
+
+And in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase
+"cleanliness is next to godliness."
+
+Simple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the
+situation, inasmuch as we are assured that "blessed are the pure in heart
+for they shall see God."
+
+Again Jesus told his hearers that they "must become as little children,"
+evidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind
+of a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife;
+death (repeated incarnation); and all so-called "evil."
+
+To this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion;
+by worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by
+aspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.
+
+What, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?
+
+Before taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of
+human life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of
+consciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human
+devotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few
+instances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+
+Consciousness may be termed, simply, "the divine spark," which enters into
+every form and phase of manifested life emanating from that one Eternal
+Power which materialists designate as "energy" and which Occultists, both
+Oriental and Occidental, best define as "Aum," God! The Absolute--The
+Divine Mind, and many other terms.
+
+Consciousness, therefore, enters into everything--is the life essence of
+everything.
+
+The materialistic hypothesis formerly predicated the axiom that there were
+two distinct phases of manifestation, namely organic and inorganic.
+
+Organic life was sentient, or conscious, while inorganic life was
+insensate--a structure acted upon from forces outside itself, and dependent
+upon an exterior force for its action.
+
+Other names for this differentiation, would be "matter" and "spirit." The
+point is, that the old materialistic philosophy failed to recognize the
+fact that consciousness, in varying degrees, characterizes all manifested
+life.
+
+This fact every phase of Oriental philosophy recognized, and always has
+recognized. The assumption of the Christian Science devotee, that there is
+anything new in the postulate that "all is spirit," is possible only
+because of his ignorance of Oriental philosophy, as will be seen later on
+in these pages, when we take up the relative comparison between the
+Oriental and the Occidental systems of "salvation."
+
+To resume therefore, we postulate the following recognized axioms of
+Universal Occultism.
+
+All life is sentient or conscious.
+
+All life is from the one source, and therefore contains this "divine
+spark."
+
+All manifestation expresses degrees or phases of consciousness.
+
+The degree of this consciousness fixes the status of the organism, and
+determines its classification, whether it is organic or inorganic; simple,
+or complex.
+
+Every cell, each separate cell, in fact, has its own consciousness--that is
+each cell is a center of this power that we term consciousness; a group of
+cells with this power focalized to a given point, or center, makes an organ
+of consciousness, and so on up the scale through many many degrees of
+complexity of organism, until we come to man.
+
+Webster defines consciousness as "the ability to know ones mental
+operations." But, we do not take this definition in Occultism, for the
+obvious reason, that it is not possible to state arbitrarily whether or
+not, the cell "knows its operations," and since all operations are
+necessarily mental in the final analysis, we assume that there is a phase
+of consciousness below that of cognition of "self," which may be termed
+"the unconscious consciousness," which again is synonymous with the phrase
+"automatic cerebration."
+
+Coming up through the various myriad degrees of sub-conscious life (sub
+being here used as below self consciousness) we arrive at the stage of
+simple consciousness which characterizes the animal kingdom, remembering
+that consciousness in the abstract is not a _condition_, or state of
+environment. It is one of the eternal verities. It _is_ just as Aum _is_.
+
+The attainment of a wider and wider area of consciousness, is but the
+_uncovering_, or the attracting to a central point or to an individual
+organism of _this that is_. Thus consciousness, in the abstract, may say
+of itself "before creation was, I am."
+
+That is what is meant when it is said that God is omnipotent, and
+omniscient.
+
+The difference between mere power, or energy, and consciousness, whether
+considered from the standpoint of the organic or the inorganic kingdom, may
+be likened to the difference between a blind force, and a power that knows
+itself.
+
+Consciousness is practically the great central light that "lighteth every
+man that cometh into the world." Without consciousness, manifestation would
+be darkness. Thus it is said, "the light shineth in darkness and the
+darkness comprehendeth it not." This applies to that tiny spark of divinity
+in which consciousness exists but where there is not realization of its
+divinity.
+
+This fact is not applicable to the inorganic, or the animal kingdoms alone.
+Many men are not conscious of the light that shineth within them, save as
+there is an aggregate of cell consciousness which recognizes its focalized
+power as an organism.
+
+Manifestation then, is the vehicle (carrying character) of universal
+consciousness, and we may logically assume that manifestation is due to
+the necessity of developing individualized entities, who may, through
+successive phases of conscious unfoldment, or uncovering of areas of
+Being, become gods.
+
+The western writers, and indeed, many Oriental seers prefer to put it thus:
+"become fit to dwell with God, in eternal bliss and power."
+
+To dwell with God, must be to become gods. Once more, we must remember that
+only gods are immortal. Souls continue to exist after the physical body has
+been discarded, for the reason that no body in these days, lives as long as
+its psychic counterpart or dweller. But, although the soul continues to
+exist on another plane of note of the _scale of vibration_, it does not
+argue that the identity shall continue eternally, except in such instances,
+as when the soul through numbers of incarnations shall have finally
+accomplished the purpose of its pilgrimage and attained to _mukti_
+(liberation from the law of change and death).
+
+Returning to a consideration of what may be said to constitute certain
+specific phases of consciousness, we will take into consideration the
+phase of consciousness, which we see expressed in the mineral kingdom.
+That there is a distinct and separate character of consciousness thus
+expressed is evident from the fact that there is a law of chemical
+affinity, i.e. attraction and repulsion, which causes different minerals
+to respond, or to refuse to respond, as the case may be, to certain
+conditions or chemical processes, more or less crude in character.
+
+From this to the vegetable kingdom we assume a step in advance, as
+vegetable life measured by complexity and refinement, responds with a
+greater degree of sensitiveness to the laws of evolution, as expressed in
+cultivation, selection and environment.
+
+Even in this phase of manifestation, we find the law of Being, is measured
+by the perfection of species. Evolution of inorganic life, is as real, and
+as much a part of the plan, (or whatever name we choose), as is organic,
+and self-conscious life.
+
+That which is less perfect, measured by the law of beauty and usefulness,
+we find gradually being exterminated. That the earth, as a planet, is
+obeying this cosmic law of evolution from grossness to refinement; from
+crudity to perfection; from the limited to the all-inclusive, is
+indisputable. As the motor power of electricity has become general, we find
+that beasts of burden are fast disappearing from the earth, according to
+the law of the "survival of the fittest," this law, always being subject to
+change. The "fittest" means that which is best fitted to the conditions of
+the time.
+
+Brute force survives among brutes, in the degree that it is strong or weak;
+coming out of that expression of law into the mental areas of
+consciousness, we find that the _mentally_ fit survive among those who live
+only in the areas of the mind; so on, into the spiritual, we will find the
+"survival of the fittest" will be those who are best fitted for spiritual
+eternity--for godhood.
+
+Coming again, to our consideration of the term consciousness, we will take
+a brief survey of that phase of consciousness which we see manifested in
+the forms of life that have the power to move from their immediate
+environment; such for instance would include the fish in the sea; insect
+life; reptiles; the birds in the air; and all forms of animal life.
+
+While expressing a very limited degree of consciousness, yet there is
+evident a certain degree or aggregate of cell consciousness, which
+transcends that of the mineral and vegetable life. This apparently
+_advanced_ degree of consciousness, does not, as we have stated, presuppose
+a nearer approach to immortality, however, for the reason that we apply
+the law of the survival of the fittest to all manifestation, and that
+which is best fitted for certain stages of the planet's life during the
+process of evolvement, may be most unfitted for succeeding stages, and
+will, by the inexorable law of survival, be discontinued--discarded, even
+as the properties and stage-settings of a drama are thrown aside, when the
+play has been "taken off the boards."
+
+It is admitted, therefore, that those forms of life having the power of
+locomotion, involve a more complex degree of consciousness, than does that
+of the mineral or vegetable.
+
+In that phase of life that we see possessing the power to move, to change
+its immediate environment, even though not capable of changing its
+_habitat_ we may perceive the beginning of that consciousness expressed as
+"free-will." Here, we assume, the organism recognizes its self as distinct
+from its environment, and from its counterparts, etc., but this recognition
+has not sufficient consciousness to _assert_ that recognition, and so we
+say that there is no _self_-consciousness. There is what occultists have
+agreed to call simple consciousness, but this does not include a
+realization of identity, as apart from environment. This may be better
+understood if we separate these degrees or phases of consciousness into
+groups, applicable to the human organism, leaving, for a time the
+consideration of whether or not some human specimens are higher in the
+scales than are some animals.
+
+Physical, or sense consciousness, is shared alike by man and the animals.
+
+Beyond this phase of consciousness we may classify the human species in the
+following terms:
+
+Physical self-consciousness.
+
+Mental self-consciousness.
+
+Soul (individual) "I" consciousness.
+
+Spiritual self-consciousness.
+
+Physical self-consciousness is that phase of self-recognition which knows
+itself as a body distinct from its neighbors; from its natural environment.
+This awareness of the self it is that actuated pre-historic man when he
+manifested the blind force that is sometimes called "self-preservation,"
+which force has erroneously been termed "the first law of nature."
+
+Preservation of this physical self is the most "primitive" law of nature,
+but not "first" in the sense that it is the most important, or the
+strongest.
+
+The world's long list of heroes refutes this idea. The pre-historic species
+of human, then, in common with his brother, the animal, sought to preserve
+this physical self, because he felt that this physical self, his body, was
+all there was of him, and he wished to preserve it, even as the _wise_ man
+of to-day, sacrifices everything to the preservation of the moral and
+spiritual Self which he realizes is the _real_ of him.
+
+To this end, he cultivated physical force, sufficient to overcome his
+environment; and as he developed a little of that consciousness which we
+term mental (using the term merely as a part of the physical organism
+called the brain), he realized that co-operation would greatly enhance his
+chances for self-preservation, and therefore, this mental consciousness
+impelled him to annex to his forces other physical organisms so that their
+united strength might preserve each other.
+
+This side of the story of man's evolution in consciousness is not however a
+part of our present work, and we will therefore leave it, for a brief
+consideration of the successive steps in attainment of consciousness,
+leading through devious paths, and through millions of relative time called
+years, into the present state of man's consciousness which in so many
+instances presages the oncoming of that state, called liberation, or
+illumination--mukti.
+
+Through mental self-consciousness the way has been long and arduous. There
+are many, many degrees of this phase of consciousness, and to this phase we
+owe what is called our present civilization.
+
+The true occultist, whether viewing manifestation from the standpoint of
+Oriental or of Occidental ideals, realizes that everything is right which
+makes for human betterment, and that _dharma_ (right-action) consists in
+acting in accordance with the highest motive of which one's consciousness
+is capable.
+
+That our present civilization is most _uncivilized_ in many respects, will
+be admitted by all whose range of consciousness has touched in any degree,
+the infinite areas of wisdom expressed in altruistic action.
+
+But, though the path be long, and thorny, the cycle is closing, and many
+have reached the goal through its zigzag course.
+
+But, underlying, as it were, and upholding and uplifting the expression of
+sense consciousness in which so many persons seem lost to-day, there are
+evidences of a consciousness which _observes the effects_, of this
+tremendous mental activity, and knows itself as something apart from, and
+superior to this manifestation.
+
+This, we define as soul--individualized expression of the spiritual
+consciousness--the central light, which as we previously quoted, "lighteth
+every man that cometh into the world."
+
+Many there are who merely _perceive_ this. To them there is a vague and
+indefinable _something_ which seems to realize that the operations of the
+mind are something phenomenal and apart from the _real_ Self. Psychology,
+even so empirical a psychology as is possible of demonstration in western
+schools and colleges, evidences the fact that there is a far greater field
+of mental operation than is covered by the outer, or _mental_
+consciousness.
+
+The outer, or objective action of the mind, considers but one subject, one
+question, one problem at a time. Many varied _phases_ of this problem may
+present themselves, but the mental forces are focalized upon one subject at
+a time. And yet to state that but one idea, thought-concept, or desire, can
+enter the mind at a time, is not a safe assumption.
+
+After many centuries of material strife, with the object of satisfying the
+demands of human life, the conviction is forcing itself upon people in all
+walks of life, that wealth, ambition, power and possessions, do not give us
+the answer to the eternal unescapable and insistent question of the way to
+happiness.
+
+This means that there is awakening in the human race more generally than at
+any other time in recorded history, a realization that the human organism
+is not merely a physical aggregate of cells, nor yet that it is mind
+individualized and in operation for the purpose of exercising new powers.
+The fact is becoming apparent that all discovery is but an uncovering of
+those vast areas of consciousness which are limitless; and which include
+not only all life on this planet, but all life in the Cosmos. In short,
+cosmic consciousness is becoming _perceived_, by a vast majority, and is
+being _realized_ by not a few.
+
+But in the immediate future of the race, we find the next step, for the
+majority to be that of soul-consciousness.
+
+Back of thought, like a guardian angel stands the desire of the soul,
+stimulating and directing; back of action stands thought, as the master
+directs the servant, or as the captain decides the course of the ship.
+
+Spiritual evolution may be understood, or at least _perceived_, from a
+study of physical and mental evolution. From the crude to the perfect is
+the law; if this perfection of species, or of phases, could be attained
+without pain, it were well. Pain comes from lack of wisdom to realize that
+out of the lower the higher inevitably springs, as the butterfly springs
+from the cocoon; as the flower springs from the seed; "as above so below"
+is a translation of an old Sinto saying, which also bids us "trust in Kami
+and keep clean."
+
+Again it is said "to him who overcometh, will I give the inheritance."
+_Overcoming_ may be variously interpreted. In the past, it has been
+presented to the initiate, as sacrifice. If so it be, then is it because of
+lack of that wisdom which knows that there is no sacrifice in exchanging
+the physical for the spiritual--the ephemeral for the abiding.
+
+Says the ancient manuscripts:
+
+"The body is purified by water, the mind by truth, the soul by knowledge
+and austerity, the reason by wisdom."
+
+But as the groping, undeveloped soul struggles for consciousness, it
+reaches out for the gratification of mental desires. The soul is moved by
+desire for perfect happiness. The mind seeks to satisfy this craving for
+happiness in increased activities; in accumulation; in so-called pleasure,
+i.e. always looking outside--thinking outside, living in the outside--the
+_maya_. But the soul has but one answer to this quest for happiness. It is
+love, because only love and wisdom give immortality--which is
+self-preservation in the true sense.
+
+It is written in the Shruti: "Brahman is wisdom and bliss."
+
+No higher text can be given the disciple.
+
+Wisdom comes from reflection upon the results of Experience, in the search
+for happiness.
+
+When the mind has sounded the depths of its resources, and the urge forward
+can not be appeased, when the voice of the inner self--the soul, cannot be
+silenced; the disciple pauses to ask _the way_. He wants to know what it is
+all about, and why it is that all he has so striven and struggled for fails
+to satisfy. He wants to know how to avoid pain; and how to find the most
+direct road to that satisfaction which endures; and which is not synonymous
+with the so-called "pleasures" of the senses.
+
+When this stage of development has been reached, the disciple is ready for
+another phase of Experience which shall extend his consciousness into
+those areas of knowledge, in which the Real is distinguishable from the
+Illusory.
+
+Experience will then teach him that only Love is real.
+
+That which is for the permanent good of all, as opposed to that which is
+transitory and only seemingly satisfying to the few, may be said to
+constitute the perception of the Real, and the avoidance of Illusion.
+
+To exchange a present seeming advantage to the physical environment, for a
+future and permanent satisfaction of the soul is the prerogative of the
+wise--the soul that has discovered itself and its mission.
+
+In all organisms below the scale of the human, there is a constant growth
+in complexity of organism, with specialization of functions.
+
+When we come to this last-mentioned stage of human development, we find
+that there is no more specialization in the way of development of the
+physical functions. Instead, there is a determined effort at perfecting
+the higher functions, through the gradations of consciousness, until the
+spiritual consciousness of the individual entity has been awakened.
+
+Then, indeed, has been awakened the "divine man" and the path to
+immortality is henceforth comparatively short, although by no means strewn
+with roses, judged from the limited standard of Relativity.
+
+A man's karma simply and mathematically, proves the direction of his former
+desires. Karma does not punish or reward, as is frequently imagined.
+
+The general impression that one is reaping "good or bad karma" according as
+his life is one of pleasure or of pain, is not the solution of the problem
+of karma, and has no relation to the law of karmic action.
+
+If a soul has in a previous life outgrown or outworn that evolutionary
+phase of development, in which the mind seeks temporary pleasures, and has
+come to the place where he wants to distinguish the Real from the Illusory,
+his karma, in compliance with the law of desire, will bring him in relation
+to those conditions which will teach him to know the Real from the
+Illusory, and in those conditions he will experience pain because he will,
+if he remain in the activities of the world, be acting contrary to the
+ideas of the _average_.
+
+Thus, to the onlooker, and in accordance with the general misinterpretation
+of the law of karma, he will be thought to have reaped a "bad" karma, while
+as a matter of reality, he will be making very rapid strides on the path to
+godhood. Said a famous Japanese high priest:
+
+"Desire is the bird that carries the soul to the object in which his mind
+is immersed, and thus his future actions are the result."
+
+This means that by the law of desire, acting in accordance with the
+evolutionary pilgrimage of the soul, the karma is produced. The American
+poet, Lowell, says: "No man is born into the world whose work is not born
+with him." However, whether or not this applies to man in the first stages
+of his upward climb to the goal of attainment of conscious godhood, it most
+assuredly applies to those souls who have become aware of their purpose,
+and who have made a _conscious_ choice of their karma. And of this class of
+souls, the world to-day has a goodly number.
+
+The end of a kalpa finds many avatars, and angels on earth, and however
+obscured the mind of these may become in the fog of Illusion, the inner
+light guides them through its mists to the safe accomplishment of their
+mission.
+
+There is a story of a Buddhist priest, who when dying, was comforted by his
+loving disciples with the reminder that he was at last entering upon a
+state of bliss and rest. To which the earnest one replied:
+
+"Never so long as there is misery to be assuaged, shall I enter Nirvana. I
+shall be reborn where the need is greatest. I shall wish to be reborn in
+the nethermost depths of hell, because that is the place that most needs
+enlightenment; that is the place to point out the path to deliverance; that
+is the place where the light will shine most brightly."
+
+Thus it will be seen we may not readily determine what is "good" and what
+is "bad" karma, by judging from external conditions.
+
+As we are told that we may entertain "angels unawares," so we may pass the
+world's avatars upon the street, and judging from the external, the
+physical environment, we may not know them from the vampire souls that
+contact them.
+
+The point of our present consideration is that this "year of grace,"
+meaning not the mere twelve months of the calendar year, but the century,
+is the end of the present _kalpa_ (cycle), and demonstrates that period of
+evolution has terminated, and the era is at hand when spiritual alchemy
+shall transform the old into the new, and that the desire, which has so
+long ministered to the wants of the physical body, shall be turned
+(converted) into the channels that lead to spiritual consciousness.
+
+The undefined, instinctive urge that has actuated so many intrepid souls,
+is becoming recognized for what it is--the awakening of the inner Self; the
+blind groping in the dark will cease and there shall arise a race of human
+beings liberated; free; aware of their spiritual origin and their inherent
+divinity.
+
+All who have conformed their life activities to the divine law of action,
+which may be tersely stated as "Not mine, but thine, dear brother," will
+have achieved the goal of the soul's purpose--will have found Nirvana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS
+
+
+During what is historically known as the Dark Ages, the esoteric meaning of
+religious practices became obscured. This is true no less, and no more, of
+Oriental countries, than of European. The long night through which the
+earth passed during that time and since, but foreshadowed a coming dawn. In
+the still very imperfect light of the dawning day, truth is seen but dimly,
+and its rays appear distorted, whereas, when seen with the "pure and
+spotless eye" they are straight and clear and simple.
+
+Indeed, the very simplicity of Truth causes her to pass unnoticed.
+
+While to the superficial observer; the student who is mentally eager but
+who lacks the wonderful penetrating power of spiritual insight, there seems
+to be a great complexity in Oriental philosophy, the fact is, that the
+entire aggregation of systems is simple enough when we have the key.
+
+One of the stumbling blocks; the inexplicable enigma to many Occidental
+students, is the problem of the preservation, of the Self, and the constant
+admonition to become selfless. The two appear paradoxical.
+
+How may the Self acquire consciousness and yet become selfless?
+
+Throughout the Oriental teachings, no matter which of the many systems we
+study, we find the oft-repeated declaration that liberation can never be
+accomplished and Nirvana reached, by him "who holds to the idea of self."
+
+It is this universally recognized aphorism which has given rise to the
+erroneous conception of Nirvana as absorption of all identity.
+
+Hakuin Daisi, the St. Paul of Japanese Buddhism, cautioned his disciples
+that they must "absorb the self into the whole, the cosmos, if they would
+never die," and Jesus assured his hearers that "he who loses his life for
+my sake shall find it."
+
+Christians have taken this simple statement to mean that he who endured
+persecution and death because of his espousal of Christianity, would be
+rewarded in the way that a king bestows lands and titles, for defense of
+his person and throne.
+
+This is the limited viewpoint of the personal self; it is far from being
+consistent with the wisdom of the Illumined Master.
+
+He who has sufficient spiritual consciousness to desire the welfare of
+_all_, even though his own life and his own possessions were the price
+therefore, can not lose his life. Such a one is fit for immortality and
+his godhood is claimed by the very act of renunciation--not as a reward
+bestowed for such renunciation.
+
+By the very act of willingness to lose the self we find the Self. Not the
+self of externality. Not the self that says "I am a white man; or a black
+man; or a yellow man; or a red man." That says "I am John Smith"--or any
+other name. The awareness of this kind of selfhood, this personal self, is
+like looking at one's reflection in the mirror and saying, "Ah, I have on a
+becoming attire," or "my face looks sickly to-day." It is the same "I" that
+looked yesterday and found the face looking excellently well, so that there
+must have been consciousness behind the observation, that could take
+cognizance of the difference in appearance of yesterday's reflection and
+that which met that cognizing eye to-day.
+
+Eagerness to retain consciousness of the personal self blocks the way of
+Illumination which uncovers the real, the greater, the higher Self--the
+_atman_.
+
+This constant adjuration to sink the self into The Absolute, is what has
+given rise to so much difference of interpretation as to the meaning of
+_mukti_, liberation. It sounds paradoxical to state that it is only by
+giving up all consciousness of self, that immortal Self-hood is gained.
+
+Thus has arisen all the confusion as to the meaning of "absorption into a
+state of bliss." How may the Self realize a state of selflessness and yet
+not be lost in a sea of _un_ consciousness?
+
+Only one who is capable of self-sacrifice were he called upon, can
+correctly answer this question, and by what may be termed the very _law of
+equation_, the sacrifice becomes impossible.
+
+Should any one seek to bargain with himself to pay the price of loss of
+self, so that he might gain the higher, fuller life, his sacrifice would be
+in vain because it would not be selflessness, but selfishness--there could
+be no _sacrifice_, were it a bargain.
+
+Let no one think that this unchanging law of the Cosmos is in the nature of
+either reward or punishment, or that it was devised by the gods, as a
+method of initiation--a test of fitness for Nirvana. Even though the test
+be applied by the gods, it is not of their planning.
+
+It _is_, just as the absolute _is_, and analysis of the way and wherefrom
+is not possible of contemplation.
+
+If it sometimes appears that Illumined Ones have seemed to infer a loss of
+identity of the Self, it should be remembered that not only have these
+reported instances of liberation (cosmic consciousness attained), been
+vague, but they have necessarily suffered from the impossibility of
+describing that which is indescribable. We should also remember that
+translators employ the words in the English language which most nearly
+express their interpretation of the original meaning.
+
+Words are at best but clumsy symbols.
+
+Perfect bliss is voiceless--inexpressible.
+
+This does not, however, mean that perfect bliss is nothingness. Rather is
+it _everything-ness_, in that it is all-embracing in its realization. In
+complete realization of the Cosmos nothing is excluded. Exclusiveness is a
+concomitant of the state of consciousness pertinent to the personal self,
+which state is not excluded from the consciousness described as cosmic,
+_nirvana_ or _mukti_, but on the contrary, is included in it, even as the
+simple vibrations of the musical scale are included in the great harmonies
+of Wagner's compositions.
+
+"He who has realized Brahman becomes silent," says Ramakrishna.
+"Discussions and argumentations exist so long as the realization of The
+Absolute does not come. If you melt butter in a pan over a fire, how long
+does it make a noise? So long as there is water in it. When the water is
+evaporated it ceases to make further noise. The soul of the seeker after
+Brahman may be compared to fresh butter. Discussions and argumentations of
+a seeker are like the noise caused during the process of purification by
+the fire of knowledge. As the water of egotism and worldliness is
+evaporated and the soul becomes purer, all noise of debates and discussions
+ceases and absolute silence reigns in the state of _samadhi_."
+
+A better translation of the word "noise" would be "sputtering."
+
+Sound is not necessarily _noise_. The idea conveyed is not intended to be a
+condition in which the soul becomes anæsthetized as it were, but a state of
+_knowing_, and the effort and the sputtering of _questioning_ and
+_searching_ is passed.
+
+The same gospel better expresses the meaning thus:
+
+"The bee buzzes so long as it is outside the lotus, and does not settle
+down in its heart to drink of the honey. As soon as it tastes of the honey
+all buzzing is at an end. Similarly all noise of discussion ceases when the
+soul of the neophyte begins to drink the nectar of Divine Love, at the
+lotus feet of the Blissful One."
+
+Who will not say that the bee is more satisfied when he has found and drank
+of the honey than when he is buzzingly seeking it?
+
+Surely it is not necessary to be of one mind, in order that we may be of
+one heart. Even though we were as "like as two peas in a pod," it is well
+to note that the two peas are _two_ spheres--nature has made them separate
+and distinct despite their close resemblance.
+
+To unite with the absolute should correspond to this unity of all hearts in
+the desire for a common effort to establish harmony, while we permit to
+each individual the freedom of mind; of taste; of choice of pursuits; of
+choice of pleasure; of discrimination; and preservation of identity.
+
+Our contention is that _mukti_, or liberation (which we believe to be
+identical with attainment of cosmic consciousness) does not mean an
+absorption into the Universal, the Absolute, Brahm, to the extent of
+annihilation of identity. And we claim that this view finds corroboration
+in the best interpretation of Oriental philosophies and religions, as well
+as in the Christian doctrine.
+
+Says Nagasena, the Buddhist sage:
+
+"He who is not free from passion experiences both the taste of food, and
+also the passion due to that taste; while he who is free from passion
+experiences the taste of food but no passion."
+
+Hence we discover that the state of Illumination, _samadhi_, or _mukti_,
+according to the most enlightened and logical interpretation, means a calm
+and peaceful consciousness, undisturbed by passion. But we should not
+interpret the word "passion" as here used, to mean absence of all
+sensation, feeling or knowledge.
+
+There is absolutely no arbitrary interpretation or translation of the words
+of Buddha, nor can there be. The same is true of Confucius; of Mohammed; of
+Krishna; of Laotze; of Jesus; of all the teachers and philosophers of the
+world.
+
+Who of you who read these words has not listened to debates and endless
+discussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or
+Nietzche or Kobo Daisi, or some other, may have meant by certain
+statements?
+
+In the Samyutta Nikaya we read:
+
+"Let a man who holds the Self clear, keep that Self free from wickedness."
+
+This does not imply annihilation of identity, _absorption_ of
+consciousness, although it has been so interpreted by many students. On the
+contrary, instead of losing consciousness of the Self (which is not merely
+the personality), we _find_ the Real Self.
+
+As an adult we realize more consciousness than we do as infants. Not that
+we possess more consciousness. We cannot acquire consciousness as we
+accumulate _things_. We can not add one iota to the sum of consciousness,
+but we can and do uncover portion upon portion of the vast area of
+consciousness which _is_.
+
+Says the Dhammapada:
+
+"As kinsmen, friends and lovers salute a man who has been long away and
+returns safe from afar; in like manner his good deeds receive him who has
+done good, and who has gone from this world to the other, as kinsmen
+receive a friend on his return."
+
+If this state of _mukti_ were annihilation of individual consciousness it
+would hardly be an incentive to do good deeds, except that good deeds in
+themselves bring happiness, but if the bringing of happiness did not also
+bring with it a larger consciousness, it would not be true happiness, but
+merely a _condition_, and conditions are always subject to change.
+
+"It is not separateness you should hope and long for; it is _union_--the
+sense of oneness with all that is, that has ever been and that can ever
+be--the sense that shall _enlarge the horizon of your being_, to the limits
+of the universe; to the boundaries of time and space; that shall lift you
+up into a new plane far beyond, outside all mean and miserable care for
+self. Why stand shrinking there? Give up the fool's paradise of 'This is
+I'; 'This is mine.' It is the great reality you are asked to grasp. Leap
+forward without fear. You shall find yourself in the ambrosial waters of
+Nirvana and sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
+
+This admonition to give up the struggle and strife for separateness is
+interpreted by many to declare for annihilation of consciousness of
+identity, but we contend that _union_ is in no wise akin to annihilation,
+and since this assurance of union is further described as an enlargement of
+the horizon of _your being_, it is evident that your being can not be
+enlarged by becoming annihilated, or even _absorbed into_ The Absolute, as
+in that event it would cease to be _your being_. Moreover, you are told
+that you will "sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
+Arhats are alluded to in the plural, and not as One Being.
+
+To be sure there may be a final state of absorption of consciousness far
+beyond this state of being which is described as Nirvana.
+
+Theosophy lays much stress upon the assumption that the attainment of
+godhood is possible to every human soul, but that this godhood must
+inevitably have an ultimate conclusion. That is, there is a _place_ or
+heaven, which is called the Devachanic plane, and this plane, or place,
+is inhabited by "gods," for a definite period, approximating thousands of
+years, but that the final conclusion must be, absorption of identity into
+the universal reservoir of mind, or consciousness. But we may readily see
+that beyond the Devachanic plane, we may not penetrate with the limited
+consciousness which takes cognizance of external conditions. Any attempt,
+therefore, at a description of what occurs to the individual consciousness
+beyond the areas of Devachan, must be futile.
+
+The argument that most logically postulates the assumption that all
+identity, or differentiation of consciousness, becomes absorbed into The
+Absolute, is based upon the fact that we remember nothing of previous
+states of consciousness. That is, the devious pathway by which the
+advanced and progressive individual has reached his present state or
+realization of consciousness, is shrouded in oblivion. From this it is
+not unnatural to assume that since we have come OUT OF THE VOID, having
+apparently no memory or realization of what preceded this coming, we will
+return to the same state, when we shall have completed the round of
+evolution.
+
+This postulate, is, however, merely the result of our limited power of
+comprehension, and may or may not be true. The answer is as yet
+inexplicable to the finite mind, considered from the standpoint of relative
+proof.
+
+If it were a fact, that all Oriental sages experiencing the phenomenon of
+liberation, _mukti_, had reported what would seem to be annihilation of
+identity of consciousness, we still maintain that this fact would not be
+proof sufficient upon which to postulate this conclusion, for the very
+obvious reason that the present era promises what Occidental theology,
+science, and philosophy unite in designating as a "new dispensation,"
+wherein the "old shall pass away," and a "new order" shall be established.
+
+"Look how the fine and valuable gold-dust shifts through the screen,
+leaving only the useless stones and debris in the catches; even so that
+which is infinitely fine substance becomes lost when sifted through the
+screen of the limited mind of man," said a wise Japanese high priest.
+
+However, it is our contention that Buddhism, far indeed from postulating
+the assumption that individual consciousness is swallowed up in The
+Absolute, as is frequently understood by Occidental translators of
+Buddhistic writings, announces a calm and unquestioning conviction in the
+power of man to attain to immortality, and consequent godhood, through
+contemplation of faith in his own identity with the _Supreme One_.
+
+When we consider that there are in the religion of Buddhism, as many as
+sixty different expositions of the teachings of the Lord Buddha, and that
+these vary, even as the Christian sects vary in their interpretations and
+presentments of the instructions of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, we begin
+to have some idea of the difficulties of correct interpretation of the
+obscure and mystical language in which _mukti_ is ever described.
+
+One of the most quoted of the translations of the Life of Buddha, reaches
+the English readers through devious ways, namely, from the Sanskrit into
+Chinese, and from the Chinese into English, and again edited by an English
+scientist who is also an Oriental scholar.
+
+We must also consider the poverty of the English language when used to
+describe supra-conscious experiences, or what modern thought terms
+Metaphysics. Only within very recent times, approximating twenty-five
+years, there have been coined innumerable words in the English language.
+
+The advances made in mechanical, scientific, ethical and philosophical
+thought, have made this a necessity, while, when it comes to an attempt at
+clarifying the meaning of mystical terms, a very wide range of
+interpretation is imperative.
+
+Buddha, addressing his servant, says:
+
+"Kandaka, take this gem and going back to where my father is, lay it
+reverently before him, to signify my heart's relation to him."
+
+It is related that the gem mentioned was a beryl, which in the language of
+gems signifies purity and peace. It must be remembered that all Oriental
+languages give power to gems, perfumes and talismanic symbols. This fact
+makes direct translation of Oriental writings a difficult task for the
+Occidental scholar, who, until recently at least, gave no power to
+so-called "inanimate" things.
+
+"And then for me request the king to stifle every fickle feeling of
+affection, and say that I, to escape from birth and age and death, have
+entered the forest of painful discipline.
+
+"Not that I may get a heavenly birth, much less because I have no
+tenderness of heart, or that I cherish any cause of bitterness, but Only
+that I may escape this weight of sorrow; the accumulated long-night weight
+of covetous desire. I now desire to ease the load, so that it may be
+overthrown forever; therefore I seek the way of ultimate escape.
+
+"If I should gain the way of emancipation, then shall I never need to put
+away my kindred, to leave my home, to sever ties of love. O grieve not for
+your son. The five desires of sense beget the sorrow; those held by lust
+themselves induce sorrow; my very ancestors, victorious kings, have handed
+down to me their kingly wealth; I, thinking only on eternal bliss, put it
+all away."
+
+The meaning here conveyed is simple enough to understand. From a long line
+of ancestors who had ruled with the unquestioned authority of Oriental
+monarchs, the young prince felt that he had inherited much that would
+retard his soul's freedom. The examples of kings and emperors who have
+abandoned their possessions have been too few to cause us to believe that
+they have held these possessions as naught.
+
+Through rivers of blood; through ages of despotism, and self-seeking, kings
+and emperors have maintained their vested rights bequeathing to their
+progeny the same desires; the same covetousness of worldly power; the same
+consideration for the lesser self; the same hypnotism that takes account of
+caste.
+
+To escape from these fetters of the soul, into a realization of the Eternal
+Oneness of life, was no easy task for the inheritor of such desires and
+beliefs and appetites as an ancestry of rulers imposes.
+
+And Prince Siddhartha was anxious to escape reincarnation--a theory or
+conviction inseparable from Oriental religion.
+
+His reference to "fickle affection" means literally that selfish affection
+of the parent, which would retain the fleeting joy of a few short earthly
+years of companionship, while the larger and more perfect love would bid
+the child seek its birthright of godhood. The word "fickle" here would more
+properly be translated transitory.
+
+Buddha's desire to escape from a continuous round of deaths and
+"leave-takings from kindred," does not necessarily imply an absorption into
+The Absolute; it may as logically be interpreted to mean, that liberation
+from the hypnotisms of externality _(mukti)_ insures the possession and
+power of the gods--power over physical life and death, and this power need
+not mean a cessation from individual consciousness, but rather, a full
+realization of individual _unity_ with the sum of all consciousness.
+
+There is another mistaken interpretation of the means of attainment of that
+state of liberation, which has been alluded to in so many varied terms. The
+fact that Buddha, like many of the Oriental Masters, sought the seclusion
+of the forest; the isolation, and simplicity of the hermit,--has given rise
+to the belief, almost universally held among Oriental disciples, that
+liberation from _maya_, the delusions of the world, can not be attained
+save by these methods.
+
+Monasteries are the result of this idea, and this Buddhistic practice was
+adopted by the first Christian church, since which time the real purpose
+and intention of the monastery and the nunnery have become lost in the
+concept of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably
+retires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to
+that enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, _mukti_, but
+as an "outward and visible sign" that he is willing to undergo the
+sacrifice of worldly pleasures at the behest of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the
+real object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the
+nature of a "bargain."
+
+In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:
+
+"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the
+two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is
+harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,
+whose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one
+not _affected_.
+
+"He who acteth, placing all action in the _eternal_, abandoning attachment,
+is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters."
+
+This is interpreted according to the viewpoint of the translator, even as,
+among an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost as many
+interpretations, and shades of meaning of a musical composition.
+
+True, the Oriental meaning _seems_ to be the one that we shall cease to
+love friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon
+the furniture of one's household when outworn, and no longer of service.
+
+We do not accept this interpretation.
+
+To abandon one's friends, one's loved ones, yea, even one's would-be
+enemies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,
+without sentiment or remorse, save one's physical self from destruction.
+
+No higher sentiment is known to struggling humanity than love of each
+other. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
+friend."
+
+Oriental or Occidental philosophy, whichever may be presented to the mind,
+as an unfailing guide, should be distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes
+the abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother, companion.
+That is, if we accept the dictionary meaning of the word "abandoned" as
+translated into English.
+
+A western avatar has said:
+
+"I will not have what my brother can not," and in this we heartily concur,
+not hesitating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize
+the fullness of this message, we shall not, as a race, have attained to the
+inheritance that is ours.
+
+But shall we then believe, that the Oriental doctrine is erroneous? Not
+necessarily.
+
+Errors of interpretation are not only natural but inevitable, and this
+interpretation of abandonment is in line with the idea of sacrifice (using
+the word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all
+the centuries just passed--centuries in which the idea of God was estimated
+by the conduct of the kings and monarchs of earth.
+
+A later revelation or dispensation has given what the Illumined One said
+was a "new commandment," and it is one more in accord with our ideals of
+godhood.
+
+"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye _love_ one another."
+
+But love, like everything which _is_, means much or little, according as
+the soul is advanced in knowledge, or is undeveloped.
+
+Perfect and complete love is not selfish; it desires not possession, but
+union. There is a world of difference between the two words.
+
+"The soul enchained is man, and free from chain is God," said Sri
+Ramakrishna.
+
+And the soul is enchained by illusion--by mistaking the effect for the
+cause, and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the
+incompleteness; the limitedness; the unsatisfying character of the
+changing--the external.
+
+Not that the pursuit of the external is sinful, but it is unsatisfying,
+while the soul that has caught a glimpse of that wonderful ecstasy of
+Illumination, has found that which satisfies.
+
+Upon this point of attainment of complete satisfaction, and certainty, all
+who have experienced the consciousness we are considering seem to agree,
+according to the testimony here submitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS EFFECTS
+
+
+The term Illumination seems a fitting description of the state of
+consciousness which is frequently alluded to as cosmic consciousness.
+Without the light of understanding, which is a spiritual quality, words
+themselves are meaningless. When the mind becomes Illumined the spirit of
+the word is clear and where before the meaning was clouded, or perhaps
+altogether obscured, there comes to the Illumined One a depth of
+comprehension undreamed of by the merely sense-conscious person.
+
+If we consider the recorded instances of Illumination found among
+Occidentals, we will find that such extreme intensity of effort as that
+which is reported of Sri Ramakrishna, and other Oriental sages, does not
+appear.
+
+It would seem that the late Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke of Toronto, Canada,
+was the first in this country to present a specific classification of what
+he termed the "new" consciousness, and to describe in some detail, he
+experience of himself and others, notably Walt Whitman.
+
+Dr. Bucke's first public exposition of these experiences was made at a
+congress of the British Medical Association in Montreal, Canada, in
+September of the year 1897. Dr. Bucke described this state of
+consciousness--a subject that seemed to him at that time to be a new
+one--in the following words:
+
+"But of infinitely more importance than telepathy, and so-called
+spiritualism--no matter what explanation we give of these, or what their
+future is destined to be--is the final act here touched upon. This is, that
+superimposed upon self-consciousness as is that faculty upon simple
+consciousness, a third and higher form of consciousness is at present
+making its appearance in our race. This higher form of consciousness, when
+it appears, occurs as it must, at the full maturity of the individual, at
+or about the age of thirty-five, but almost always between the ages of
+thirty and forty. There have been occasional cases of it for the last two
+thousand years, and it is becoming more and more common. In fact, in all
+appearances, as far as observed, it obeys the laws to which every nascent
+faculty is subject. Many more or less perfect examples of this new faculty
+exist in the world to-day, and it has been my privilege to know personally
+and to have had the opportunity of studying, several men and women who have
+possessed it. In the course of a few more milleniums there should be born
+from the present human race, a higher type of man, possessing this higher
+type of consciousness. This new race, as it may well be called, would
+occupy toward us, a position such as that occupied by us toward the simple
+conscious 'alulus homo.' The advent of this higher, better and happier
+race, would simply justify the long agony of its birth through countless
+ages of our past. And it is the first article of my belief, some of the
+grounds for which I have endeavored to lay before you, that a new race is
+in course of evolution."
+
+At a subsequent date, having given the subject further consideration and
+having collected data corroborative of his former observations, Dr. Bucke
+said:
+
+"I have, in the last three years, collected twenty-three cases of this
+so-called cosmic consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the
+new faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the
+mind experiences, is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a
+brilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause,
+and may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at
+first feels that he is becoming insane.
+
+"Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a
+feeling of certainty that there is a future life,--that would be a small
+matter--but a pronounced _consciousness_ that the life now being lived is
+eternal, death being seen as a trivial incident which does not affect its
+continuity.
+
+"Further, there is annihilation of the sense of sin, and an intellectual
+competency, not simply surpassing the old plane, but on an entirely new and
+higher plane. * * * The cosmic conscious race will not be the race that
+exists to-day, any more than the present is the same race that existed
+prior to the evolution of self-consciousness. A new race is being born from
+us, and this new race will in the near future, possess the earth."
+
+Dr. Bucke later published an article in a current magazine, illustrating
+the illumination of his friend Walt Whitman, and supplemented with an
+account of his own experience. We quote briefly from Dr. Bucke's account of
+his own experience:
+
+"I had spent the evening in a great city with some friends reading and
+discussing poetry and philosophy. We had occupied ourselves with
+Wordsworth, Shelley, Browning, and especially Whitman. We parted at
+midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodgings. My mind, deeply
+under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the
+reading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost
+passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and
+emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once,
+without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored
+cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere
+close by in that great city. The next moment I knew that the fire was
+within myself."
+
+While Dr. Bucke is unquestionably right in his estimate of the fact that "a
+new race is being born," as he expresses it, there can scarcely be any
+question of individual age, in which the new consciousness may be expected.
+Physical maturity can have nothing whatever to do with the matter, since
+the acquisition of supra-consciousness is a matter of the maturity of the
+soul. This completement of the cycle of the soul's pilgrimage and service,
+may come at any age, as far as the physical body is concerned. Indeed,
+science records no definite age at which even physical maturity is
+invariably reached, although there is an approximate age.
+
+A case recently widely commented upon was that of a child of six years who
+showed every symptom of senility or old age, which could hardly be possible
+without having passed what we call "maturity."
+
+Again, we find that some persons retain every indication of youth, both of
+mind and body, long after their contemporaries have reached and passed
+middle age. It is coming more and more to be admitted that age is relative,
+and that what we know as the relative is the effect of mental operations.
+Mental operations are subject to change--to enlargement.
+
+The advent of cosmic consciousness is, therefore, not subject to what we
+know as time, as applied to physical development.
+
+Nor should we speak of cosmic consciousness as an acquisition, but rather
+as a _realization_, since the consciousness _is_, at all times. It always
+has been, it will always be. Our relation to it changes, as we develop from
+the sense conscious to the self-conscious state and finally to what we term
+the "cosmic" conscious state. This latter must of necessity have been as
+yet only imperfectly realized, even by those of the Illuminati, who are
+known to the world as avatars and saviours.
+
+Several instances of the possession of cosmic consciousness by children,
+are personally known to the writer. A well-known woman writer in America
+thus describes a succession of experiences in what were evidently
+conditions of cosmic consciousness, although as she said, she did not
+until many years later realize what had taken place.
+
+Like Lord Alfred Tennyson, who tells of inducing in himself a state of
+spiritual ecstasy or liberation, by repeatedly intoning his own name, this
+lady acquired the habit of repeating in wonder and awe the name by which
+she was called in the household, which was an abbreviation of her baptismal
+name. The effect is best described in her own words:
+
+"It seems to me that I never could quite become accustomed to hear myself
+addressed by name. When some member of the household would call me from
+study or play--even at the early age of five or six years--I would
+instantly be seized with a feeling of great and almost overwhelming awe and
+amazement, at the sound, which I knew was in some way associated with me.
+
+"I found it extremely difficult to identity myself with that name, and
+often when alone would repeat the name over and over, trying to find a
+solution of the 'why and wherefore.'
+
+"At length this wonderment grew upon me to such an extent that I felt I
+must see this self of me that was called by a name.
+
+"I acquired the habit of standing on a chair to gaze into the mirror above
+the chest of drawers in my mother's bed-room, and putting my face close to
+the mirror, I would gaze and gaze into the eyes I saw there, and repeat
+over and over the name which seemed to me not to belong to that 'other
+self' hidden behind those eyes. On one occasion I became quite entranced
+and fell from the chair, after which I refrained from looking into the
+mirror, although I did not for many years get over the feeling of
+wonderment at the sound of my own name, and many times, on repeating the
+name aloud, I would feel myself being lifted up into what seemed to me the
+clouds above my head, until I felt myself being 'melted,' as I termed it,
+into the moving cloud of soft transparent light.
+
+"At this time I was between seven and eight years of age, and although I
+was far beyond children of my age, in my school studies, I was frequently
+admonished for being 'stupid,' owing to the fact that I could not remember
+the names of objects, nor could I be trusted on an errand.
+
+"While walking from our house to the grocer's, scarcely a block away, I
+would feel that sudden wonderment and awe of my name steal over me, and
+again I would be transported to some unknown, yet immanent region, utterly
+losing consciousness of my surroundings. I would sometimes awake to find
+myself standing before the counter of the grocery store, struggling to
+remember who and where I was, and what it was that I had been sent to that
+strange place for."
+
+This lady relates that she never dared to tell of her strange experiences,
+although she did not "outgrow" them until early womanhood, when she dropped
+the abbreviation of her name, and assumed her full baptismal name. Whether
+this latter fact had anything to do with the cessation of the experience is
+doubtful. At the same time, she declares that she can even now induce the
+same sensations, and transport herself into childhood again by repeating
+her childhood name.
+
+The following extract from a paper published in London, England, in 1890,
+gives a description of an experience of a young man who had fallen into a
+condition which the physicians pronounced "catalepsy." This young man was
+at the time a medical student, and had always exhibited a tendency to
+entrancement, or catalepsy. On recovering from one of these cataleptic
+attacks, and being asked to give a description of his sensations or
+experiences, the young man said:
+
+"I felt a kind of soothing slumber stealing over me. I became aware that I
+was floating in a vast ocean of light and joy. I was here, there, and
+everywhere. I was everybody and everybody was I. I knew I was I, and yet I
+knew that I was much more than myself. Indeed, it seemed to me that there
+was no division. That all the universe was in me and I in it, and yet
+nothing was lost or swallowed up. Everything was alive with a joy that
+would never diminish."
+
+Such, in substance, was the attempt of this young man to describe what all
+who have experienced cosmic consciousness unite in saying is indescribable,
+for the very obvious reason that there are no words in which to express
+what is wordless, and inexpressible. This authentic account of a young man
+under twenty years of age, however, serves to prove that there is no
+special age of physical maturity in which the attainment of this state of
+consciousness may be expected.
+
+This account was published seven years previous to Dr. Bucke's statement,
+and yet, since it is not quoted in Dr. Bucke's account, it is most unlikely
+that he had seen the article. Certainly the young man had never heard of
+the experience which Dr. Bucke later records, as "cosmic consciousness,"
+and yet the similarity of the experience, with the many which have been
+recorded is almost startling.
+
+The salient point in this account, as in most of the others which have
+found their way into public print, is the feeling of being in perfect
+harmony and union with everything in the universe. "I was everything and
+everything was I," said this young man, and again "I was here, there and
+everywhere at once," he says in an effort to describe something which in
+the very nature of it, must be indescribable in terms of sense
+consciousness.
+
+Illustrative of the connection between religious ecstasy and cosmic
+consciousness, we find the experience of an illiterate negro woman, a
+celebrated religious and anti-slavery worker of the early part of the last
+century.
+
+This woman was known as "Sojourner Truth" and was at least forty years of
+age in 1817, when she was given her freedom under a law which freed all
+slaves in New York state, who had attained the age of forty years.
+
+Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write, and her education consisted
+almost entirely of that presentation of religious truth which finds its
+most successful converts in revivalism.
+
+With this fact in mind, nothing less than the attainment of a wonderful
+degree of spiritual consciousness could account for her marvelous power of
+description, and her ready flow of language, when "exhorting."
+
+Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of her, in an article published in the
+Atlantic Monthly, as early as 1863:
+
+"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more
+of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence, than this
+woman. In the modern spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as
+having a 'strong sphere.'"
+
+The wonderful mental endowment which seems to follow as a complement to the
+experience of Illumination, when not already present, as in the case of
+Whitman, for example, is characteristic of "Sojourner Truth," or Isabella,
+as she was baptized.
+
+Naturally, this mental power, seemingly inconsistent with her humble
+origin, and her unlettered condition, is evidenced along those lines which
+made up the sum and substance of her life. Judging her from the broader
+concept of philosophy, Isabella appears somewhat fanatical, but the
+influence of her life and work was so great, that Wendell Phillips wrote of
+her:
+
+"I once heard her describe the captain of a slave ship going up to
+judgment, followed by his victims as they gathered from the depths of the
+sea, in a strain that reminded me of Clarence's dream in Shakespeare, and
+equalled it. The anecdotes of her ready wit and quick striking replies are
+numberless. But the whole together give little idea of the rich, quaint,
+poetic and often profound speech of a most remarkable person, who used to
+say to us: 'You read books; God Himself talks to me.'"
+
+Isabella's conviction that she had "talked to God," was unshakable, and
+was, indeed, the dynamic force which moved her. She was accustomed to tell
+of the strange and startling experience in which she met God face to face,
+and in which she said to Him: "Oh, God, I didn't know as you was so big."
+In the New England Magazine for March, 1901, there was given a full account
+of the work of this noted negro woman. Commenting on her sense of awe of
+the immensity of God "when she met him," the writer says:
+
+"The consciousness of God's presence was like a fire around her and she was
+afraid, till she began to feel that somebody stood between her and this
+brilliant presence; and after a while she knew that this somebody loved
+her. At first, she thought it must be Cato, a preacher whom she knew or
+Deencia or Sally--people who had been her friends.
+
+"We are not told whether these persons were living or dead, or whether she
+thought they had come in the flesh, or in the spirit to her relief. However
+this may be, she soon perceived that their images looked vile and black and
+could not be the beautiful presence that shielded her from the fires of
+God. She began to experiment with her inner vision, and found that when she
+said to the presence 'I know you, I know you,' she perceived a light; but
+when she said 'I don't know you,' the light went out.
+
+"At last, she became aware that it was Jesus who was shielding her and
+loving her, and the world grew bright, her troubled thoughts were banished,
+and her heart was filled with praise and with love for all creatures.
+'Lord, Lord,' she cried, 'I can love even de white folks.'"
+
+The question will legitimately arise here, as to the authenticity of an
+experience in which Jesus is said to be personally guiding and shielding
+her, but it must be remembered that the mind is the medium through which
+the spiritual realization must be _expressed_ and, as has been stated
+previously, the description of the phenomenon of Illumination, particularly
+when experienced in a sudden influx must partake of the character of the
+mind of the illumined one.
+
+William James, late professor of Psychology of Harvard University, in his
+exhaustive book _The Varieties of Religious Experiences_, in the chapter on
+"The Value of Saintliness," says:
+
+"Now in the matter of intellectual standards, we must bear in mind that it
+is unfair, where we find narrowness of mind, always to impute it as a vice
+to the individual for in religious and theological matters, he probably
+absorbs his narrowness from his generation. Moreover, we must not confound
+the essentials of saintliness with its accidents, which are the special
+determination of these passions at any historical moment. In these
+determinations the saints will usually be loyal to the temporary idols of
+their tribe."
+
+Applying this explanation to the case of "Sojourner Truth," we may realize
+that the literal conception of Jesus as her guide and shield, was a mental
+image, inevitable with her, as Jesus was the motive power of her every
+thought and act. And although at the moment of her Illumination, she
+realized the "bigness" of God, later, in arranging and recording the
+phenomenon, in her mental note-book, she tabulated it with all she knew of
+God--the religious enthusiasm of her work of conversion to the religion of
+Jesus.
+
+Says James, commenting upon the question of conversion in human experience:
+and this tendency to what seems a narrow and limited viewpoint:
+
+"If you open the chapter on 'Association,' of any treatise on Psychology,
+you will read that a man's ideas, aims and objects form diverse internal
+groups, and systems, relatively independent of one another. Each 'aim'
+which he follows awakens a certain specific kind of interested excitement,
+and gathers a certain group of ideas together in subordination to it as
+its associates."
+
+It is perhaps natural to assume that most instances of the attainment of
+Illumination, have been inseparable from religious devotion, or at least
+contemplative mysticism. This view is held almost exclusively by
+Orientals, and seems to have been shared to a great extent by western
+commentators upon the subject.
+
+A notable example among Occidentals, bearing the religious aspect, and one
+which is important from the fact that the person detailing his experience,
+was a man of mental training, is the case of Rev. Charles G. Finney,
+formerly president of Oberlin College.
+
+In his "Memoirs," Dr. Finney describes what Orthodox Christians generally
+call the "baptism of the Holy Spirit":
+
+"I had retired to a back room for prayer," writes Dr. Finney, "and there
+was no fire or light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it
+were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as
+if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then
+nor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state.
+
+"On the contrary, it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me and I
+fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a
+child and made such confessions as I could with choked utterance.
+
+"It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no
+distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect. As I turned and
+was about to take my seat, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost.
+
+"Without any expectation, without even having the thought in my mind, that
+there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever
+heard the thing mentioned, by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit
+descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul.
+
+"I could feel the impression like the waves of electricity going through me
+and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in _waves of liquid love_. For I
+could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of
+God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense
+wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my
+heart.
+
+"I wept aloud with joy and love. These waves came over me, and over me,
+one after the other, until I recollect that I cried out, 'I shall die if
+these waves continue to pass over me.' I said 'Lord, I cannot bear any
+more.'"
+
+We will note, that although Dr. Finney says that he could not remember ever
+having heard the thing mentioned by any person, yet he felt "the baptism of
+the Holy Spirit." It is practically impossible that Dr. Finney could have
+lived in an age and a community which was essentially strict in its
+Orthodoxy, without having heard of the phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit,"
+even though the words had escaped his immediate recollection. However, the
+point that characterizes Dr. Finney's experience, in common with all
+others, is that of seeing an intense light, and of the realization of the
+overwhelming force of love.
+
+The relation of this experience to a creed or system of religion, is
+something which, we believe, may be accounted for, as Professor James has
+said, on the fact of "historical determination."
+
+Until very recently, the idea that spirituality was impossible save in
+connection with religious systems, and rigid discipline, has been quite
+general.
+
+In the case of Dr. Finney, we find that all his life previous to this
+experience he had been noted for his simplicity and child-like trust.
+Following his Illumination we learn that he became a man of great
+influence, and power, because of "the wonderful humanity which he
+radiated."
+
+Similar in experience, in its effects, is a case related by Theodore F.
+Seward, the well-known American philanthropist, Mr. Seward relates the
+following story:
+
+"The strange experience which I here relate came to a friend whom I knew
+intimately, and from whose lips I received the account. It is a lady in
+middle life, who has for years been an earnest seeker for truth and
+spiritual light. She was alone in her room sewing.
+
+"Thinking, as was her wont, of spiritual things and feeling a strong sense
+of the presence and power of God, she suddenly had a consciousness of being
+surrounded by a brilliant white light, which seemed to radiate from her
+person. The light continued for some minutes, and at the same time, she
+felt a great spiritual uplifting and an enlargement of her mental powers,
+as if the limitations of the body were transcended, and her soul's
+capacities were in a measure set free for the moment. The experience was
+unique, above and beyond the ordinary current of human life, and while the
+vision or impression passed away, a permanent effect was produced upon her
+mind. She had never heard the term 'cosmic consciousness,' and did not know
+that the subject it covers is beginning to be discussed."
+
+It must be noted that in these experiences, the idea most strongly felt was
+the one of the "power and presence of God," and we are impressed with the
+fact that, no matter how varied may be the _creeds_ of the world, as
+founded by "saviours" and incarnations of God, there is a unity among all
+races, as to the fact of a one supreme universal power, which is Aum, the
+Absolute, and which must represent perfect love and perfect peace, since
+all who have glimpsed their unity with this power, testify to a feeling of
+happiness, peace and satisfaction, rare and exalted.
+
+By comparing the experience of those who have attained this state of
+liberation from illusion, through religious rites and ceremonies, or
+"sacrifice to God," as it is not infrequently called, with the experience
+of those who have recorded the phenomenon, apparently arriving at the goal
+through intellectual and moral aspiration, we will find that the results
+are almost identical, and the after-effects similar.
+
+It has been said that those who attain liberation have invariably sought to
+found a new system of worship, and this fact has given rise to the many
+paths or methods of attainment which have been taught by various Illumined
+Ones, both in the Orient and in the western world, supplementary as it were
+to the main great religious systems.
+
+We will take a short survey of a few of these systems in Japan and India in
+comparatively modern times, or at least during the last two thousand years,
+which is modern compared to the history of the Orient.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION
+
+
+The early religion of Japan, before the advent of Buddhism, was extremely
+simple.
+
+It consists of the postulate that there was but one God, _Kami_, from him
+all things came, and to him all things shall return. As has been stated
+previously, the chief injunction of Shintoism is: "Keep your body and your
+mind clean, and trust _Kami_."
+
+Shintoism literally translated, means "the way to God," and includes the
+belief that all persons ultimately reach the place where God dwells, and
+become "one with Him."
+
+In present day interpretations and descriptions of Shintoism, we read of
+the "heathen" belief that _Kami_ himself dwells in person, in the "inner
+temple" or sacred place of Shinto temples.
+
+This idea doubtless exists as a reality among the very ignorant
+superstitious devotees, much as among the ignorant Catholics we find the
+unquestioned belief that the actual body and blood of Jesus the Christ is
+contained in the Eucharist.
+
+The Shinto temple always contains an "inner or sacred shrine," which is
+equivalent to the "holy of holies," of the Mystic Brotherhoods, and
+typifies the fact that _within_ and not _without_, will be found the God in
+man, by finding which, man reaches liberation, or cessation from the cycle
+of births and deaths.
+
+A Shinto funeral is an occasion for rejoicing, because the departed one may
+be a step farther on the way to God, and since his ancestors were directly
+responsible, as a favor, for his occasion to become reborn, thus fulfilling
+the law of _karma_, the Shintoist pays much respect to his ancestors.
+
+The advent of Buddhism into Japan was made possible by the simple fact that
+the people were becoming somewhat disgruntled with Shintoism, because of
+its emphasis upon the never-to-be questioned postulate that the Mikado and
+his progeny was the direct gift of _Kami_ to his people, to be obeyed
+without demur, and to be adored as divine.
+
+Several generations of Mikados who did not fulfil the ideal of Deity--an
+ideal to which even savages attach the qualities of justice and mercy--left
+the masses ready and eager to grasp at a religion that gave them some other
+personified god, than the Mikado, much as a drowning man clutches at a
+straw.
+
+The Lord Buddha was a prince, therefore worship of him would not be an
+absolutely impossible step--an unforgivable breach of contract with the
+Mikado, and as he exhibited the qualities of humility and mercy and
+tolerance, he was welcomed. The religion of Japan is to-day regarded as
+Buddhistic, although the Imperial family, and consequently the army and the
+navy are to all outward appearance, Shintoists.
+
+Coming, then, to a consideration of the varying sects of Buddhism in Japan,
+and the corresponding sects in India, we find that there have been nine
+different incarnations of God, and that another, and, it is believed the
+final one, is expected.
+
+The intelligent and open minded seeker after truth of whatever race or
+color, will find in the instructions given man by each and every great
+teacher, whether we believe in them as especially "divine" or as mere
+humans who have attained to the realization of their godhood (_avatars,_) a
+complete unity of _purpose_, and if these teachers differ in _method of
+attainment_, it is only because of the immutable fact that there can be no
+_one and only_ way of attainment.
+
+Methods and systems are established consistently with the age and character
+of those whom they are designed to assist in finding the way.
+
+And again we must emphasize the fact that by the phrase "the way," we mean
+the way to a realization of the godhood within the inner temple of man's
+threefold nature.
+
+Thus, the intelligent, unprejudiced student of the religions and
+philosophies of all times and all races, will find that, while there are
+many and diverse paths to the goal of "salvation," the goal itself means
+unity with the Causeless Cause, wherein exists perfection.
+
+Perhaps it has been left for the expected Incarnate God, which Christians
+speak of as "the second coming of Christ," to make clear the problem as to
+whether this attainment or completement means an absorption of individual
+consciousness, or whether it will be an adding to the present incarnation,
+of the memory of past lives, in such a manner that no consciousness shall
+be lost, but all shall be found.
+
+In considering instances of cosmic consciousness, _mukti_, which have been
+recorded as distinctly religious experiences, and the effect of this
+attainment, the system best known to the Occident, is contained in the
+philosophy of Vedanta, expounded and interpreted to western understanding
+by the late Swami Vivekananda.
+
+But it should be understood that the philosophy taught by Vivekananda is
+not strictly orthodox Hinduism. It bears the same relation to the old
+religious systems of India that Unitarianism bears to orthodox Christianity
+such as we find in Catholicism, and its off-shoots.
+
+Vivekananda honored and revered and followed, according to his
+interpretation of the message, Sri Ramakrishna, whom an increasing number
+of Hindus regard as the latest incarnation of Aum--the Absolute. Not that
+the reader is to understand, that Sri Ramakrishna's message contradicted
+the essential character of the basic principles of orthodox Hinduism, as
+set down in the Vedas and the Upanashads.
+
+The same difference of _emphasis_ upon certain points, or interpretations
+of meaning exists in the Orient, as in the western world, in regard to the
+possible meaning of the Scriptures.
+
+Sri Ramakrishna, who passed from this earth life at Cossipore, in 1886, was
+a disciple of the Vedanta system, as founded by Vyasa, or by Badarayana,
+authorities failing to agree as to which of these traditional sages of
+India founded the Vedantic system of religion or philosophy.
+
+Vedanta, particularly as interpreted by Sri Ramakrishna and his successors,
+offers a wider field of effort, and a more intellectual consideration of
+Hindu religion than that of the Yoga system as interpreted from the
+original Sankhya system by Patanjali, about 300 B.C.
+
+Patanjali's sutras are considered the most complete system of Yoga
+practice, for the purpose of mental control, and psychic development.
+Patanjali's sutras are almost identical with those employed in the Zen sect
+of Buddhist monasteries, throughout Japan.
+
+These sutras, together with Buddhist mantrams will be considered in a
+subsequent chapter, devoted to the development of spiritual consciousness
+as taught by the Oriental sages and philosophers.
+
+One other great teacher of modern times who has left a large following, was
+Lord Gauranga, who was born in India in the early part of the fifteenth
+century. Gauranga was worshipped as the Lord God, whether with his consent,
+or without, it is not exactly clear, even though his biographers are united
+on the fact of his divine origin.
+
+Those who have espoused the message of Gauranga claim that he brought to
+the world "a beautiful religion, such as had never before been known." But,
+as this claim is made for all teachers and founders of religions and
+philosophies, we suggest that the reader compare the message of Lord
+Gauranga with those of other avatars and teachers.
+
+Lord Gauranga's message is known as Vaishnavitism, and we will here
+consider only those passages of his doctrine which shed light upon his
+attainment of cosmic consciousness. Certainly his breadth of mind, and his
+standards of tolerance, justice and consideration for all other systems of
+worship, would indicate his claim to cosmic consciousness.
+
+One of the contentions of the Vaishnavas is that they alone of all
+religious faiths, admit the divine birth and mission of the founders of all
+religions.
+
+Thus the Christians have declared that Jesus was the only Son of God; the
+Buddhists have claimed Buddha; the Hebrews have clung tenaciously to their
+prophets as the only true messengers from heaven, and the Mohammedans have
+refused, until the present century, to even sit at the table with the
+"infidels" who would not acknowledge Mohammed as the only true incarnation
+of Allah.
+
+It is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind
+followers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not
+any one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he
+had attained to spiritual consciousness.
+
+One passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many
+others who have sought to express the feeling of security, of
+_deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic
+consciousness. He says:
+
+"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that
+embrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the
+sole partner of my soul."
+
+The gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of
+love, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.
+
+The realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note
+of the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it
+has attained Illumination through love.
+
+God is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning
+all joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught
+by orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim
+that God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit,
+but that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God
+dwells.
+
+"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer
+be answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the
+demand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The
+real devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure.
+He will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling
+to God in divine reverence and love." Thus, say the Vaishnavas, "God serves
+as he is served, in absolute justice."
+
+Another salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is
+the "All-Sweetness" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the
+devotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and
+all-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea
+is similar to that of the Roman church, which bids its untutored children
+to select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because
+these characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more
+approachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been
+exploited.
+
+Be that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have
+earned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India
+and, according to a recent biographer, "he had all the frailties of a man;
+he ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an
+ordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost
+sages of India, the worship and reverence due a God."
+
+The fact that Lord Gauranga "behaved like a man," is comforting, to say the
+least, and presages the coming of a day when "behaving like a man" will not
+be considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will
+be less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.
+
+Very unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of
+the effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of
+the greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the
+sixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.
+
+This Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description
+of the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the
+bride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called "Love's Lament," and
+might have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.
+
+The life of Tukaram, like that of the late Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, was
+one long agony of yearning and struggle for that peace of soul which he
+craved. One of his chroniclers thus describes, in brief, the final struggle
+and the subsequent attainment of Illumination of this good man:
+
+"Selfless, he sought to gather no crowds of idle admiring disciples about
+him, but followed what his conscience dictated. He listened not to the
+counsel of his relatives and friends, who thought he had gone mad; and he
+bore in patience the well-meant but harsh rebukes of his second wife. After
+a long mental struggle, the agonies of which he has recorded in
+heart-rending words, now entreating God in the tenderest of terms, now
+resigning himself to despair, now appealing with the petulance of a pet
+child for what he deemed his birthright, now apologizing in all humility
+for thus taking liberties with his Mother-God, he succeeded at last in
+gaining a restful place of beatitude--a state in which he merged his soul
+in the universal soul,"--that is, Illumination, or cosmic consciousness.
+
+Sadasiva Brahman, one of the great Siddhas, and a comparatively modern sage
+of India, left a Sanskrit poem called _Atmavidyavilasa_, which gives a
+comprehensive description of the experience and the effects of
+Illumination, as for example:
+
+"The sage whose mind by the grace of his blessed Guru is merged in his own
+true nature (Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss Absolute), that great
+Illumined one, wise, with all egotism suppressed, and extremely delighted
+_within himself_, sports in joy."
+
+"He who is himself alone, who has known the secret of bliss, who has firmly
+embraced peace, who is magnanimous and whose feelings other than those of
+the _atman_, have been allayed, that person sports on his pleasant couch of
+self-bliss."
+
+"The pure moon of the prince of recluses, who is fit to be worshipped by
+gods and whose moonlight of intelligence that dispels the darkness of
+ignorance causes the lily of the earth to blossom, shines forth in the
+abode of the all-pervading Essence of Light."
+
+The above stanzas represent a more impersonal idea of the bliss of
+attainment than those of many others who have experienced Illumination, but
+they emphasize the same point that we find throughout all writings of the
+Illuminati, namely, the realization of the kingdom _within_, rather than
+without, and the necessity of selflessness--meaning the subjugation of the
+lesser self, the mental, to the soul.
+
+We come now to a consideration of the life and character of the Lord
+Buddha, whose influence is still stronger in all parts of the world than
+that of any other person who has ever taught the precepts of attainment.
+
+In Japan, for example, Buddhism, in its various branches, or
+interpretations, is the religion of the vast majority and even where
+Shintoism is the method of worship, the influence of Buddhism may be seen.
+So too, we find in Japan, a form of Buddhism, which shows evidences of the
+influence of Shintoism, but I think it may be admitted that Japan, above
+all other countries, represents to-day, the religion of Buddhism.
+
+Buddhism has been called the "religion of enlightenment," but the term
+"illumination" as it is used to describe the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, is what is meant, rather than the purely intellectual
+quality which we are accustomed to think of as enlightenment.
+
+Sakyamuni, another name for Buddhism, means also illumination, or
+realization of the saving character of the light within.
+
+The lamp is the most important symbol in, Buddhism, as it typifies the
+divine flame or illumination (which is cosmic consciousness), as the goal
+of the disciple.
+
+Another interpretation of the symbol of the lamp, is that of the power of
+the lamp to shed its rays to light the way of those who are traveling "in
+the gloom," and by so doing, it lights the flame of illumination in others,
+without diminishing its own power. An article of faith reads:
+
+"As one holds out a lamp in the darkness that those who have eyes may see
+the objects, even so has the doctrine been made clear by the Lord in
+manifold exposition."
+
+Again, in the _Book of the Great Decease_, we learn that Buddha admonished
+his disciples to "dwell as lamps unto yourselves." Another symbol used
+throughout Japan as a means of teaching the masses the essential doctrines
+of "The Compassionate One," has become familiar to occidental people as a
+sort of "curio." It is that of the three monkeys carved in wood or ivory.
+
+One monkey is covering his eyes with both paws; another has stopped his
+ears; and the third has his paw pressed tightly over his mouth. The lesson
+briefly told is to "see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil," and the
+reason that the monkey is employed as the symbol, is because the monkey,
+more than any other animal, resembles primitive man. If, then, we would
+rise from the monkey, or animal condition (the physical or animal part of
+the human organism), we must avoid a karma of consciousness of evil.
+
+Buddhism is full of symbolism, and these symbols must be interpreted
+according to the age, or of the individual consciousness of the
+interpreter, or the translator. But the fundamental doctrine of Buddha is
+essentially one of renunciation as applied to the things of the world.
+Nevertheless this quality of renunciation has been greatly exaggerated
+during the centuries, because of the fact that the Lord Buddha had so much
+to give up, viewed from the standpoint of worldly ethics.
+
+In the following "sayings of Buddha," we find that the quest of the noble
+sage was for that supraconsciousness wherein change and decay were _not_,
+rather than that he regarded the things of the senses, as sinful. For
+example:
+
+"It is not that I am careless about beauty, or am ignorant of human joys;
+but only that I see on all the impress of change; therefore, my heart is
+sad and heavy." Or this:
+
+"A hollow compliance and a protesting heart, such method is not for me to
+follow: I now will seek a noble law, unlike the worldly methods known to
+men. I will oppose disease, and change and death, and strive against the
+mischief wrought by these, on men."
+
+According to the _Samyutta Nikaya_, the twelve _Nidanas_ (or chain of
+consequences) are:
+
+"On ignorance depends karma;
+
+"On karma depends consciousness;
+
+"On consciousness depends name and form;
+
+"On name and form depends the six organs of sense."
+
+"On contact depends sensation;
+
+"On sensation depends desire;
+
+"On desire depends attachment;
+
+"On attachment depends existence;
+
+"On existence depends birth;
+
+"On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and
+despair.
+
+"Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise."
+
+Having arrived at this conclusion, the problem may be solved by learning
+how to avoid existence. But, let us consider what the term "existence"
+means. The common acceptance of the word, as used in the English, seems to
+include _being_; but if we will consider the word in its literal meaning,
+when analyzed, we find that it comes from "est" (to be), and the prefix
+"ex," meaning actually "_not-being_."
+
+The word _Being_, is a synonym for eternal life--for Deity. It does not
+savor of anything that has been created, or that will terminate. _Being
+is_, therefore, to cease to _ex_-ist, is to cease to live under the spell
+of the illusory and changing quality of _maya_, or externality.
+
+Far from meaning to be "wiped out," or absorbed into The Absolute, in the
+sense of complete loss of consciousness, it means the eternal retention of
+consciousness, unhampered by the delusion of sense as a reality.
+
+To escape from this chain of illusory ideas,
+and their consequences, the obvious necessity is
+to claim the soul's right to _Being_. This is done
+by dispelling ignorance (_A-vidya_) by vidya
+(knowledge). Thus karma ceases:
+
+"On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness of self;
+
+"On the cessation of this consciousness of self, cease name and form;
+
+"On the cessation of name and form, cease the organs of sense;
+
+"On the cessation of sense, ceases contact;
+
+"On the cessation of contact, ceases sensation;
+
+"On the cessation of sensation, ceases desire;
+
+"On the cessation of desire ceases attachment;
+
+"On the cessation of attachment ceases existence;
+
+"On the cessation of existence, ceases birth.
+
+"On the cessation of birth cease old age, and death; sorrow; lamentation;
+misery; grief and despair. Thus does the entire aggregation of misery
+cease."
+
+But, as to the exact interpretation of all these, Buddha himself says:
+
+"Ye must rely upon the truth; this is your highest, strongest vantage
+ground; the foolish masters practicing superficial wisdom, grasp not the
+meaning of the truth; but to receive the law, not skillfully to handle
+words and sentences, the meaning then is hard to know, as in the
+night-time, if traveling and seeking for a house, if all be dark within,
+how difficult to find."
+
+But let it be understood, that Buddhism as now taught and practiced is
+necessarily colored by the effect of the centuries which have elapsed since
+the Lord Buddha lived and taught the precepts of his Illumination. Modern
+Buddhism, as a religious system of worship bears the same relation to
+Prince Siddhartha, as does modern Christianity to Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+A short review of the life and character of the personalities around whom
+the great religious systems of the world have been formed will aid us in
+perceiving the unity of thought and character of the Illumined, and the
+similarity of reports as to the effect of this realization of cosmic
+consciousness will be apparent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER
+
+
+The salient feature of the law as given by Moses unto his people, the Jews,
+is that of strict cleanliness of mind and body. In this we find a
+similarity to the oft-repeated behest of Gautama, the Buddha, who
+constantly admonished his followers to keep their hearts pure and their
+minds and bodies clean.
+
+This spirit of cleanliness finds also a counterpart in the saying ascribed
+to Jesus, "blessed are the pure in heart."
+
+The cleanliness here referred to is doubtless not so much physical neatness
+as mental purity of thought--thought free from doubt and calumny and petty
+deceits and hypocrisy and selfishness and debasing perversions of the life
+forces; but during various stages of history we find that all teachings
+have their esoteric and their exoteric application.
+
+The law, as enunciated by Moses, according to the Jewish reports, laid much
+stress upon physical cleanliness, as an attribute of godhood.
+
+But Moses, if we may credit reports, was something far more inspired and
+illumined than a mere physical culturist--commendable as is personal
+cleanliness--and his admonitions were the result of that fine sense of
+discrimination and enlightenment which comes from cosmic perception even if
+he had not experienced the deeper, fuller realization of liberation, of
+which Buddha is a shining example.
+
+It is evident that the laws laid down by Moses were taught and practised by
+the Egyptians many many years prior to the time in which Moses lived, which
+from the most reliable authorities, must have been about four to five
+hundred years before the Exodus.
+
+This does not detract from the evidence that the great Egyptian-Hebrew, was
+a man of wonderful intellectual attainments, and from what we know of
+modern examples of Illumination, he also possessed a degree of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+The story of the seemingly miraculous birth of Moses, and the mystery with
+which his ancestry is surrounded, is also typical of one who has attained
+to cosmic consciousness.
+
+The Illumined one realizes his birthlessness and his deathlessness, and
+expresses it in symbolism, meaning of course, the realization that as the
+spirit is never born and can never die, the idea of age is an
+unreality--and should find no place in the consciousness of one who regards
+himself as an indestructible atom of the Cosmos.
+
+But the evidences regarding the probable Illumination of Moses are to be
+found in the reports of his ascension of Mt. Sinai, and what occurred
+there.
+
+The phenomenon of the great light which is inseparable from instances of
+cosmic consciousness, and which gives to the phenomenon its name
+"Illumination," was apparently marked in the case of Moses.
+
+The "burning bush," which he describes is the experience of the mind when
+the illusion of sense has ceased, even temporarily, to obscure the mental
+vision.
+
+"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, and out of
+the midst of a bush; and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire
+and the bush was not consumed."
+
+There is a subtler interpretation to this report than that usually given,
+even by those who realize that this expression is an evidence of the sudden
+influx of supra consciousness which attends the soul's liberation from the
+limits of sense consciousness.
+
+The "burning bush" is synonymous with the "tree of life" which is ever
+alive with the "fires of creation."
+
+All who realize liberation are endowed with the power to understand this
+symbol. For those who have not attained to this degree of consciousness,
+the esoteric meaning is necessarily hidden.
+
+The phenomenon of the strange mystical light which seems to enfold and
+bathe the Illumined one, is concisely expressed in the case of Moses.
+
+"And it came to pass, that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
+tablets of the testimony in hand, that Moses wist not that the skin of his
+face shone, or sent forth beams by reason of his speaking with Him.
+
+"And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold! the skin
+of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him."
+
+Again we find in the case of Moses, a momentary fear of the phenomenon
+which he was experiencing, in the influx of light and the sound of the
+voice which seems to accompany the light.
+
+The interpretation given the words spoken, and the identity of the voice is
+ever dependent upon the time and character of the mind experiencing the
+Illumination.
+
+Thus Moses claims to have heard the voice of the God of the Hebrews, but
+the probabilities are, that the "voice" is the mental operations of the
+person experiencing the phenomenon of supra-consciousness, and this
+interpretation will vary with what Professor James calls the "historical
+determination," i.e. it is dependent upon the age in which the illumined
+one lived, and upon the character of the impressions previously absorbed.
+
+This apparent difference of report, as to the identity of the "voice," is
+of small import.
+
+The salient point is that each person relating his experience has heard a
+_voice_ giving more or less explicit instructions and promises.
+
+In each instance it has been characterized as the voice of the God of their
+desire, _and adoration_.
+
+Certainly, whatever may be our opinions as to whether God, as we understand
+the term, talked to Moses, giving him such explicit commands as the great
+leader afterwards laid down to his people accompanied by the insurmountable
+barrier to dissent or discussion, "thus saith the Lord," we can but admit
+that the prophet was possessed of intellectual power far in advance of his
+time, and his laws did indeed, save his people from self destruction,
+through uncleanliness and strife, and dense ignorance.
+
+The ten commandments have been the "word of God" to all men for lo! these
+many ages, and even Jesus could but add one other commandment to those
+already in use: "Another commandment give I unto you--_that ye love one
+another_."
+
+To sum up the evidences of cosmic consciousness, or Illumination, as
+reported in the case of Moses, we find:
+
+The experience of great light as seen on Horeb.
+
+The "voice" which he calls the voice of "The Lord."
+
+The sudden and momentary fear, and humility.
+
+The shining of his face and form, as though bathed in light.
+
+The subsequent intellectual superiority over those of his time.
+
+The perfect assurance and confidence of authority and "salvation."
+
+The desire for solitude, which caused him to die alone in the vale of Moab.
+
+The intense desire to uplift his people to a higher consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE
+
+
+Gautama, prince of the house of Siddhartha, of the Sakya class, was born in
+northern India in the township of Kapilavastu, in the year 556 B.C.,
+according to the best authorities, as interpreted and reported by Max
+Muller.
+
+The Japanese tradition agrees with this, practically, stating that O Shaka
+Sama (signifying one born of wisdom and love) was born as a Kotai Si, crown
+prince of the Maghada country.
+
+We have the assurance that as a youth, Gautama, like Jesus, exhibited a
+serious mindedness and an insight into matters spiritual, which astonished
+and dumbfounded his hearers, and the sages who gave him respectful
+attention.
+
+Some accounts even go so far as to state that at the very moment of his
+birth the young prince was able to speak, and that his words ascended "even
+to the gods of the uppermost Brahma-world."
+
+Divesting the traditions that surround the birth and early life of the
+world's great masters, of much that has been interpolated by a designing
+priesthood, we may yet conclude that a certain seriousness, and a deep
+sympathy with the sorrows of their fellowmen, would naturally characterize
+these inspired ones, even while they were still in their early youth.
+
+It is evident that the young Prince Siddhartha was subject to meditation
+and that these meditations led at times to complete trance.
+
+It is reported that one day while out riding in all the pomp and
+accoutrements of the son of a ruling king, he was visited by an angel (a
+messenger from the gods of Devachan), and told that if he would lessen
+the sorrows of the world that he must renounce his right to his father's
+kingdom and go into the jungle, becoming a hermit, and devoting his life to
+fasting, prayer and meditation, in order to fit himself for the work of
+preaching the "way of liberation," which consisted of, first of all, to
+take no life; be pure in mind; be as the humblest, which latter admonition
+found little favor with the world of his personal environment where caste
+was and still is, a seemingly ineradicable race-thought.
+
+The sorrows of humanity weighed heavily upon his heart, and the
+superficialities of the wealthy and ostentatious court in which he lived,
+irked his outspoken and truth-loving spirit.
+
+Surrounded, as he was, by wealth and ease, with time for contemplation and
+a mind given to philosophic speculation, the young prince found no sense of
+comfort or permanent satisfaction in his own immunity from want and sorrow.
+He pondered long upon the way to become freed from the "successive round of
+births and deaths," and thus pondering, he sought solitude in which to find
+his questions answered.
+
+Fasting and penance have ever been the gist of the instruction given to
+those who would "find the way to God," and so to this end Gautama fasted
+and prayed, and practised self-sacrifice.
+
+But the attainment of liberation was not easy, and Siddhartha suffered long
+and practiced self-mortification assiduously, at length being rewarded; and
+"there arose within him the eye to perceive the great and noble truths
+which had been handed down; the knowledge of their nature; the
+understanding of their cause; the wisdom that lights the true path; the
+light that expels darkness."
+
+The terrible struggle which characterized the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, by so many of the sages and saviours of history, is, we
+believe, clue to the fact that no one individual may hope to rise so
+immeasurably above the plane of the race-consciousness of his day and age,
+except through intense and overwhelming desire.
+
+Gautama abandoned his heritage, his relatives, his wife to whom he was
+devoted, and his infant son, as we have previously stated, not because
+Illumination is purchasable at so terrible a price, but because his desire
+to _know_ transcended all other desires, and in order to be free from the
+demands made upon him, he must of necessity, seek solitude.
+
+Few examples of the attainment of cosmic consciousness are as complete and
+of such fullness, as that attained by Buddha, and no instance which history
+affords has left so great an effect upon the world.
+
+It is estimated that at least one-third of the human race are Buddhists.
+This is not saying that any such number of persons are like unto Buddha,
+nor do we contend that this is any evidence that his message is greater or
+more fraught with truth than that of other illumined ones.
+
+The intelligent student of occultism in all its phases will arrive, sooner
+or later, at the inevitable conclusion that all illumined souls have seen
+and have taught the same fundamental truth.
+
+Buddha was convinced that in The Absolute, or First Cause, there could be
+no sin and consequently no sorrow, and he persistently sought to inaugurate
+such systems of conduct and such a standard of morals as would lead the
+disciple back to godhood, or liberation from the "wheel of causation."
+
+To keep the mind pure and clean was the burden of his cry, well knowing
+that the mind is the fertile field wherein illusions of sense consciousness
+thrive. He says:
+
+"Mind is the root (of evil); actions proceed from the mind. If anyone speak
+or act from a corrupt mind, suffering will follow, as the dust follows the
+rolling wheel."
+
+That we can not expect to escape the result of our thoughts and acts was
+ever a doctrine of Buddha, albeit, he seems also to have sought to make
+clear to his disciples, the UNREALITY of sin as a part of the
+indestructible "First Cause."
+
+Many Buddhist sects interpret the doctrines of Buddha to deny a belief in
+a future existence, in at least as far as identity is concerned, but this
+conception is not consistent with the most reliable reports, neither is it
+in keeping with the extreme peace and satisfaction which all illumined ones
+experience.
+
+If extinction of identity were the goal of Illumination, it is
+inconceivable that the illumined ones should report the attainment of
+perfect satisfaction and bliss.
+
+Besides, it is clearly stated that Gautama told his disciples that he had
+already entered Nirvana, while yet in the body.
+
+"My mind is free from passions; is released from the follies of the world.
+I have gained the victory," said Lord Buddha to his disciple Ananda.
+
+It is also asserted that Buddha appeared in his own "glorified body" to
+his disciples after his physical dissolution, plainly indicating that far
+from being swallowed up in The Absolute, he had acquired godhood in his
+present body.
+
+Detailing the advantages of a pure life, Buddha said to his disciples:
+
+"The virtuous man rejoices in this world, and he will rejoice in the next;
+in both worlds has he joy. He rejoices, he exults, seeing the purity of his
+deed."
+
+Again, alluding to a sage (rahan), Buddha is reported to have said:
+
+"He is indeed blest, having conquered all his passions, and attained the
+state of Nirvana."
+
+This alluded to the acquisition of _Nirvana_ while still in the physical
+body. In other words, as we of this century understand the teaching, he
+had experienced cosmic consciousness.
+
+The modern version of the commandments of Buddha are almost identical with
+those of the Christian creed, and these commandments are, as we have
+previously observed, the same that Moses laid down for the guidance of his
+people. That they were old before Moses was born, is also more than
+problematical.
+
+It is also more than probable that Buddha did not personally write the
+ethical code which we now find submitted as the "Commandments of Buddha,"
+but that Buddha merely emphasized them.
+
+These commandments are not, however, understood, by the intelligent
+Buddhist as "sacred," in the sense that "God spoke unto Buddha."
+
+Moses doubtless assumed to have been divinely instructed in the law,
+although that supposition may be erroneous. He may have had in mind the
+same fundamental idea which all those expressing cosmic consciousness have
+had, that of being a mouthpiece of a higher power, rather than to attract
+to themselves any adulation or worship, as being specially divine.
+
+The "Commandments," therefore, as translated and ascribed to modern
+Buddhism, are an ethical and moral code for the _MORTAL_ consciousness,
+rather than a _formula_ for developing cosmic consciousness. These
+commandments are:
+
+1--Thou shalt kill no animal whatever, from the meanest insect up to man.
+
+2--Thou shalt not steal.
+
+3--Thou shalt not violate the wife of another.
+
+4--Thou shalt speak no word that is false.
+
+5--Thou shalt not drink wine, nor anything that may intoxicate.
+
+6--Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred and bitter
+language.
+
+7--Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk, but shall do all for
+others.
+
+8--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.
+
+9--Thou shalt not harbor envy, nor pride, nor revenge, nor malice, nor the
+desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune.
+
+10--Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods.
+
+And the devotee is assured, even as in the Christian creed, that "he who
+keeps these commandments, shall enter Nirvana--the rest of Buddha." But let
+it be understood that Gautama, the Lord Buddha, did not formulate these
+commandments. Neither are they considered as infallible formulæ, by the
+enlightened Buddhist.
+
+They constitute the ethical and moral code of the undeveloped man in all
+ages of the world, and among all peoples. They had become traditional long
+before Buddha came to interpret "the way of the gods." But Gautama, like
+Jesus, was an evolutionist, and not a revolutionist. He came "not to
+destroy, but to fulfill," and so Buddha paid no attention to the code of
+morals as it stood, but merely contented himself with emphasizing the
+importance of unselfishness--purity of heart and mind, because he realized
+that the mental world is the trap of the soul, even as "the elephant is
+held tethered by a galucchi creeper."
+
+Buddha taught the way of emancipation of the soul held in bondage by means
+of the illusions of _maya_, even as the elephant is held in captivity by so
+weak a thing as a galucchi creeper, which could be broken by a single
+effort.
+
+That many who keep the commandments are yet a long way from cosmic
+consciousness must be apparent to all. Therefore we are justified in
+assuming that the mere keeping of the commandments will not bring about
+_mukti_. Many a man follows the letter of the law, and escapes prison, but
+if he does this through fear of punishment, and not because of a desire to
+maintain peace that his neighbors may be benefited, then he is not keeping
+the spirit of the law at all, and his reward is a negative one.
+
+According to the most reliable authorities, Buddha died in his eightieth
+year, having spent about fifty years in preaching, in healing the sick, in
+conversing with exalted beings in the heavenly worlds, and in leaving at
+will his physical body and visiting other worlds.
+
+Buddha prophesied his coming dissolution, and expressed to his disciples, a
+hope that they would realize that he still lived, even when his physical
+body should have become ashes.
+
+As his last hour approached, Buddha summoned his disciples, and after a
+moment's silent meditation, he addressed himself to Ananda, his relative;
+as well as his favorite disciple, thus:
+
+"When I shall have disappeared from this state of existence, and be no
+longer with you, do not believe that the Buddha has left you, and ceased to
+dwell among you. Do not think therefore, nor believe, that the Buddha has
+disappeared, and is no more with you."
+
+From these words, it is evident that the state of Nirvana which Buddha
+assured his followers that he had already attained, did not argue loss of
+identity, nor translation to another planet.
+
+Nor is there anywhere in the sayings of Buddha, rightly interpreted, any
+suggestion of expecting or desiring personal worship. This, the great sage
+particularly avoided, as indeed have all illumined ones.
+
+It is evident that Gautama the Buddha had experienced that divine influx of
+light and wisdom in which he sought for others the happiness he had gained
+for himself, and to this end he was eager to leave to his friends and
+disciples such rules of conduct of life as should aid them in attaining the
+divine peace that comes from illumination.
+
+But that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly
+unbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the
+wisdom which illumination confers.
+
+To realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his
+birthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the
+one eternal source of life.
+
+It is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of
+a teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship,
+whereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to
+inculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a
+realization of cosmic consciousness.
+
+The points which characterize the person who has experienced a degree of
+illumination (entered into cosmic consciousness), were particularly evident
+in the life and character of Gautama, the Buddha. They may be summed up
+thus:
+
+A marked seriousness in youth.
+
+A great sympathy and compassion with the sorrows of others.
+
+A deep tenderness for all forms of life.
+
+A realization of the nothingness of caste and pomp and power.
+
+The firm conviction that he was instructed by angels.
+
+The wonderful magnetism and illumination of his person.
+
+The firm conviction of immortality--released from the "wheel of life" as
+he expressed it.
+
+The knowledge of when and where he was to pass out from the life of the
+body.
+
+The love of solitude and meditation. The intellectual power maintained even
+into old age.
+
+The unselfish desire to help others.
+
+Great and never-failing sympathy with suffering, a divine patience, and
+insight into the hearts of all forms of life, earned for this great soul
+the name "Buddha--The Compassionate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JESUS OF NAZARETH
+
+
+Turning now to the next in order of the world's great masters, or illumined
+ones, we come to a consideration of Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name the
+great moral system of religion, called "Christianity," is promulgated.
+
+It has been conclusively shown that the essential features of the
+present-day _system_ of religion, known as Christianity, were instituted by
+Paul rather than by Jesus, and that the system itself, like Buddhism, is
+the work of the followers of the great teacher, rather than that of the
+Master.
+
+Our present concern, however, is not with the system or method of the
+church, but with those historic facts which bear upon the question of the
+Illumination of Jesus, classifying Him, not as an incarnate son of God, in
+the accepted theological interpretation, but in the light of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+Jesus the Christ was born, according to the most reliable authorities,
+about six hundred years after Gautama, the Buddha.
+
+Whether or not the Nazarene was familiar with the Buddhist doctrines or
+whether He spent the years of His life which are shrouded in mystery, in
+the inner temples of either Thibet, India, Persia, China, or other oriental
+country, will doubtless always be a disputed point among controversialists.
+
+The fact does not matter, either way.
+
+There is an encouraging similarity in the fundamentals of all religious
+precepts, arguing that when a teacher is really inspired, the truth makes
+friends with him or her.
+
+Some writers on the subject of Illumination give exact dates when the flash
+of cosmic consciousness came to the various teachers of the world, but
+these dates are problematical, and they are also inconsequential.
+
+That Jesus was among those historic characters who had attained cosmic
+consciousness, there can be no possible doubt, even though his exact words
+will be disputed.
+
+Enough has come down to us through the ages to prove the fact that Jesus
+knew and taught the illusory character of external life (_maya_) and that
+he was himself absolutely certain of the "kingdom within," which he
+admonished his hearers to seek, rather than to live so much in the
+external. This he did because he well knew that constant dwelling in the
+external consciousness led not to liberation.
+
+_The light within_, was the substance of his cry, and that light, when
+perceived, leads to illumination of everything, both the within and the
+without.
+
+The transfiguration of Jesus was undoubtedly the effect of his being in a
+supra-conscious state, a state of exaltation, in which many mystics enter
+at more or less frequent intervals, according to their mode of life, and
+their objective environment.
+
+"And he was transfigured before them; and his garments became exceedingly
+white," we are told in the gospels, and there are many persons in the world
+to-day possessing the power of the inner or clairvoyant vision (not
+identical with cosmic consciousness), who have witnessed similar phenomena.
+
+In the "Sermon on the Mount," we find that Jesus spoke with such certainty
+and such authority, as one who had experienced the very essence of the
+cosmic conscious state, and was already freed from the illusions of the
+senses. His words, like those of all who have sought to give directions and
+instructions for the attainment of freedom from externality, are capable
+of interpretation in various ways, according to the degree of consciousness
+of the age in which the interpretations have been made.
+
+For example, we find these words of Jesus given different meanings, and in
+fact, there have been many and diverse discussions and conclusions as to
+exactly what the Master did mean by them:
+
+"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+
+Let us examine the phrase, and see if it accords with our ideas of cosmic
+consciousness. To be "poor in spirit," is not consistent with our
+understanding of the requirements for the expansion of the soul.
+
+Those who take this phrase literally, and who are opposed to religious
+concepts, as a factor in human betterment, are fond of using this phrase as
+an evidence of the fanaticism of Jesus, and his concurrence in the worldly
+habit of exploiting the poor, and "riding the backs of the wage slaves," as
+our Socialist brothers put it.
+
+Now let us, for a moment, consider the phrase _as a person who possessed
+cosmic consciousness would have said it_.
+
+One possessing the cosmic sense, viewing the external more as a trap of the
+senses, than as realities, would readily perceive that to amass wealth
+(external possessions), the mind must be in harmony with the methods and
+the ideals of the world, rather than that it should be concentrated upon
+the "things of the spirit."
+
+This idea is expressed in the phrase, "no man can serve two masters,"
+and while we are not prepared to say that the possession of worldly
+goods is absolutely _impossible_ to the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness--observation, reflection, and intuition will unite in the
+conclusion that they are more or less _improbable_.
+
+If then, we will interpret these sayings of Jesus in the light of a broader
+outlook than was possible to the understanding of his chroniclers, we will
+find that what he doubtless said was:
+
+"_Blessed in spirit_ are the poor, for theirs shall be the kingdom of
+heaven."
+
+And in his vision, which extended beyond the times in which he lived, and
+foresaw that the attainment of cosmic consciousness must involve a degree
+of physical hardship, he said:
+
+"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
+theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+
+A survey of the world's progress will readily prove the fact that those who
+have bent their talents and their energies toward the uplift of the race,
+have done so under great stress, and in the face of persistent opposition.
+
+This opposition is an accompaniment to altruistic effort, for the very
+obvious reason that the race-thought of the world is still materialistic.
+
+The thoughts that predominate are commercial. This is due to the fact that
+those who are wealthy have large financial interests to maintain; business
+problems to solve; that take about all their time. The poor find the
+maintenance of physical existence a task that absorbs the greater part of
+their mortal mind, and therefore, those who are devoting their time and
+talents to the work of regeneration (the coming of the cosmic sense), are
+necessarily in the minority, and the majority rules in thought, as in act.
+
+The present metaphysical movement lays great stress upon worldly success
+and "attraction" of wealth, as an evidence of possession of power and
+truth, but the law of equation proves that we obtain _that which we most
+desire_. A religious system which amasses great wealth in a short time does
+so, only because its _dominant_ teaching inspires the desire for worldly
+advancement, as the _prime requisite_.
+
+The same is true of an individual, as of a system.
+
+Not that the attainment of cosmic consciousness is absolutely impossible to
+a rich man, because a man may inherit riches and position and power, as in
+the case of Prince Siddhartha, the Lord Buddha; or he may have set in
+motion certain currents of desire for wealth, and later in life may change
+that desire, when naturally, the "business" he has created will follow the
+law which instigated it, and increasing wealth will result.
+
+But, let it be known, that Buddha renounced all his possessions, and there
+are many instances to-day of renunciation of worldly life and wealth, in
+order to attain to that supreme consciousness in which the illumined one
+possesses all that he desires, even though he have but one coat to his
+back.
+
+Let it not be thought that we mean to infer that God is partial to poverty,
+and that the rich man will be excluded from the attainment of the kingdom,
+merely because of his riches; but if riches be any man's aim, then
+assuredly he cannot "serve two masters" and it will not be possible for him
+to become illumined while in pursuit of worldly goods.
+
+Jesus said:
+
+"It is easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich
+man to enter the kingdom of heaven."
+
+It is now thoroughly established that the "Needle's Eye" was the name given
+to a certain narrow and difficult pass through which camels bearing heavy
+burdens, could not find room to pass, and Jesus sought to convey to his
+hearers the truth that persons bearing in their mental desires the load
+of many possessions, would hardly find room for the one supreme desire
+which would bring them into the kingdom (the possession of cosmic
+consciousness).
+
+But the most significant of the utterances of the illumined Nazarene is the
+one in which he said:
+
+"Except ye become as little children, ye can in no wise enter the kingdom
+of heaven."
+
+The possession of cosmic consciousness brings with it, invariably, the
+simplicity, the faith and _innocence_ of a little child. The child is
+pleased with natural pleasures, and does not know the worldly standard of
+valuation. And above all, the soul, while still attached to the physical
+body, is like a little child.
+
+The attainment of cosmic consciousness is possible only to one who has
+first "got acquainted with his soul"; when we are really soul-conscious we
+possess the innocence (not ignorance), of a little child, and we also
+possess a child's wisdom. We are, in other words, "as wise as the serpent
+and as harmless as the dove." Wisdom brings with it harmlessness. The truly
+wise person would not wilfully harm any living thing; wisdom knows no
+revenge; no "eye for an eye" philosophy; makes no demands.
+
+And what may be considered the second most significant remark of the Master
+_is_ this:
+
+"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say Lo,
+here; or Lo, there, for Lo, the kingdom of heaven is within you."
+
+Jesus, although forced by the conventions of the time in which he taught to
+conform to the laws laid down by the scribes and Pharisees, influenced by
+the strict views of the Israelites, who honored the law laid down by Moses
+and the prophets, still possessed cosmic consciousness to such an extent
+that he knew the folly of judging others by outward appearance, and also
+of promising them cosmic consciousness in return for obedience to
+prescribed rules or commandments.
+
+When it would seem to his critics that he did not sufficiently emphasize
+the traditional laws, that he was seemingly making it too simple and too
+easy for people to live, they sought to trap him into a statement that
+would oppose the accepted commandments.
+
+But this Jesus steadfastly refused to do. "I came not to destroy the law,
+but to fulfill it," he said.
+
+Like all those who have experienced cosmic consciousness, his policy was
+one of construction, and not of destruction. Evolution accomplishes
+peacefully what revolution seeks to do by force.
+
+Jesus laid little stress upon the commandments as they stood. He neither
+sought to emphasize them, nor to criticise them. All that he said was:
+
+"A new commandment give I unto you: that ye love one another."
+
+All truly illumined minds have made love the basis of their teaching, well
+knowing that where true love reigns there can be no destruction.
+
+Love conquers fear--the arch-enemy of mankind.
+
+Love makes it impossible to harm the thing loved, and universal love would
+make it impossible, for one experiencing it, to consciously bring the
+slightest pain to any living thing.
+
+Therefore Jesus taught repeatedly the doctrine of love, and he made no new
+commandments other than this.
+
+It has been said that inasmuch as Jesus laid greater emphasis upon this one
+great need than had any previous inspired teacher, he deserves greater
+honor.
+
+Theologians whose purpose it is to promulgate the doctrine of Christianity
+as superior to others, use this argument in support of their contention
+that Jesus was the only true son of God.
+
+But this view will be recognized as prejudiced, and lacking in the very
+essentials taught and practiced by the Christ.
+
+In the light of Illumination, it will readily be perceived that all persons
+expressing any considerable degree of cosmic consciousness, have taught the
+same fundamental and simple truths, as witness the following:
+
+Do as you would be done by.--_Persian._
+
+Do not that to a neighbor which you would take ill from him.--_Grecian_.
+
+What you would not wish done to yourself, do not unto others.--_Chinese_.
+
+One should seek for others the happiness one desires for
+oneself.--_Buddhist_.
+
+He sought for others the good he desired for himself. Let him pass
+on.--_Egyptian_.
+
+All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to
+them.--_Christian_.
+
+Let none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would dislike to be
+treated.--_Mohammedan_.
+
+The true rule in life is to guard and do by the things of others as they do
+by their own.--_Hindu_.
+
+The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of
+society as themselves.--_Roman_.
+
+Whatsoever you do not wish your neighbor to do to you, do not unto him.
+This is the whole law. The rest is a mere exposition of it.--_Jewish_.
+
+While it is probable that Jesus gave no directions or methods of
+attainment, yet the records of his sayings give the clue to the character
+of his instruction to those of his students who were capable of
+understanding, particularly as shown in a recently discovered papyrus,
+authentically identified as belonging to the early Christians. This-papyrus
+was discovered by Egyptian explorers in 1904. Although the papyrus was more
+or less mutilated, the meaning is sufficiently clear to justify the
+translators in inserting certain words. However, we will here quote only
+such of the "sayings" as were decipherable, without having anything
+supplied by translators.
+
+Evidently having been asked when his kingdom should be realized on earth he
+answered:
+
+"When ye return to the state of innocence which existed before the fall"
+(i.e., when manifestation will be perceived in its illusory character, and
+the soul freed from the enchantment of the mortal consciousness).
+
+"I am come to end the sacrifices and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the
+wrath shall not cease from you."
+
+This evidently corresponds to his saying, "They who use the sword, shall
+perish by the sword."
+
+The conclusion is obvious that hate and destruction beget their kind, and
+that love is the only power that can prevent the continuation of
+destruction. This may with equal logic, be applied to the sacrifice of
+animal and bird life for food, as well as the sacrifices of blood which
+formed a part of ancient ritual.
+
+His disciples said unto him:
+
+"When will thou be manifest to us, and when shall we see thee?"
+
+He saith:
+
+"When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed."
+
+The time is near at hand, when the body will not be regarded as something
+vile and unworthy; something of which to be ashamed and to keep covered, as
+if God's handiwork were vile.
+
+In fact, the function of sex, from the extreme of ancient sex worship to
+the present extreme of sex degradation, shall soon be established in its
+rightful place. It is not the purpose of this book to deal with this
+important subject, so we will say no more here.
+
+Nevertheless, this saying attributed to Jesus, the Christ, resurrected as
+it has been in this century, is timely. It is almost universally conceded
+that the time of the "Second Coming of Christ" is already at hand. Just
+what this second coming means, is interpreted differently by theologians,
+philosophers, scientists, poets and prophets, but there is a unanimous
+belief that the time is here and now.
+
+Those who have the comprehension to read the signs of the times, are
+cheerfully expectant of radical changes in our attitude toward the function
+of sex and the divinity of love.
+
+"When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male as
+the female, neither male nor female--these things if ye do, the kingdom of
+My Father shall come."
+
+Again, the meaning of these words depends upon the degree of illumination
+of the person reading them. They mean the present inevitable equality of
+the sexes, when each individual will count not as a mere man or a mere
+woman, but as an important factor in the world's redemption. Or, it will
+appeal to a few as the promised time when every soul which has completed
+the circle, ended its karma, and claimed its god-hood, unites with the soul
+of its mate, the two blending into one perfect whole--the Father-Mother God
+of the New Dispensation.
+
+Again we find in these newly discovered papyri a phrase bearing upon this
+subject:
+
+To the question of Salome:
+
+"How long shall death reign?" The Lord answered:
+
+"As long as ye women give birth. For I am come to make an end to the works
+of the woman."
+
+Then Salome said to him:
+
+"Then have I done well that I have not given birth?"
+
+To this the Lord replied:
+
+"Eat of every herb, but of the bitter one eat not."
+
+When Salome asked when it shall be known what she asked, the Lord said:
+
+"When you tread under foot the covering of shame, and when two is made one,
+and the male with the female, neither male nor female."
+
+"How be it, he who longs to be rich is like a man who drinketh sea water:
+the more he drinketh the more thirsty he becomes, and never leaves off
+drinking till he perish."
+
+"Blessed is he who also fasts that he may feed the poor, for it is more
+blessed to give than to receive."
+
+"Let thy alms sweat in thy hand until thou knowest to whom thou givest."
+
+It is not probable that any one who reads these words will make the mistake
+of assuming that Jesus advised us to inquire into the character or the
+antecedents of the one on whom we are to bestow a gift. Neither are we
+expected to ascertain whether he belongs to our "lodge" or not.
+
+If you give alms as though to an inferior; if you assume a self-righteous
+mind; if you give for hope of reward; then withhold your gift. In fact,
+unless you can realize that you are giving as though to yourself, keep your
+gift. It will do neither you nor the one receiving it, any good whatsoever.
+
+"Good things must come. He is blessed through whom they come."
+
+This presages the coming of the kingdom of love on earth, as a foregone
+conclusion. Yet, those who lend themselves _consciously_, as _servants_ of
+the cause--helpers in the establishment of the new order--are blessed.
+
+"Love covereth a multitude of sins, so be not joyful save when you look
+upon your brother's countenance in love."
+
+"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, for the greatest of crimes is
+this: if a man shall sadden his brother's spirit."
+
+"For our possessions are in heaven; therefore, sons of men, purchase unto
+yourselves by these transitory things which are not yours, _what is yours_,
+and shall not pass away."
+
+For the Lord has said in a mystery: "Unless ye make the right as the left;
+the left as the right; the top as the bottom; and the front as the
+backward, ye shall not know the kingdom of God."
+
+"Keep the flesh holy and the seal undented, that ye may receive eternal
+life."
+
+"If a man shall sadden his brother's spirit." This indeed is the greatest
+of all crimes, because out of man's inhumanity to man springs all the sin
+and sorrow of the world.
+
+"Unless ye make the right as the left; the top as the bottom; the front as
+the backward." The meaning should be clear enough and the words are worthy
+of the illumined mind of Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+The great sin is separation; segregation; "My and mine" as opposed to "Thee
+and thine." To the truly illumined one there can be no "mine," as distinct
+from another's.
+
+The sinner is no less my brother than is the saint. The beggar is as dear
+to me as is the rich man. Every man is a king. There are no "chosen of God"
+to the one who has entered cosmic consciousness.
+
+"For our possessions are in heaven. Use, therefore, the things of earth,
+while ye are living in the flesh (sons of men), in such a way and to such
+purpose that they will not enchain you in the maze of manifestation, and
+thereby require that you postpone your claim to immortality."
+
+This statement is distinct enough, as is also the one: "He who longs to be
+rich is like a man drinking sea water. The more he drinketh, the more
+thirsty he becomes and _never leaves off drinking until he perisheth_."
+
+The hypnotism of the external world is too well illustrated to need further
+comment. The man who enters upon the pursuit of worldly possessions;
+temporal power; personal ambition; thinking that when he shall have
+attained all these, then will he turn to the solution of the mystery of
+mysteries, finds himself caught in the trap of his desires, and he can not
+escape. He is under the spell of enchantment, wherein the unreal appears as
+real, and the real becomes the illusory.
+
+To sum up, the fragmentary accounts we have of the life and character of
+the man Jesus are conclusive proof that he had entered into full
+realization of cosmic consciousness.
+
+Like Lord Gautama, he appeared to his disciples after he had left the
+physical body, "glorified," as one who had taken on immortality.
+
+Nor was there ever, it would appear, any doubt in the mind of Jesus, of his
+right to godhood, while retaining, also, his self-consciousness.
+
+The intellectual superiority.
+
+The wonderful spiritual magnetism and attraction of his presence.
+
+The absolute, unwavering conviction of his mission, and of his immortality.
+
+The transfiguration, after his "temptation" and his prophetic vision.
+
+His great love and compassion for even his enemies.
+
+These are what made him indeed a Christ.
+
+The term "Christ" and the term "Buddha" are synonymous. They both mean one
+who has entered into his godhood. One who has attained to cosmic
+consciousness, leaving forever the limitations of the lower self.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PAUL OF TARSUS
+
+
+The system of worship known as Christianity owes its systematic foundation
+to Paul of Tarsus. Paul's sudden conversion from zealous persecution of the
+followers of Jesus of Nazareth to an equally zealous propaganda of the
+gospel of Light, offers a perfect example of the peculiar oncoming of
+cosmic consciousness.
+
+Paul evidently occupied a position of authority among the Jews and it is
+equally probable that he was near the same age as Jesus, as he is referred
+to as a "young man named Saul" in Bible accounts of the persecution of the
+early Christians. His illumination occurred shortly after the crucifixion,
+probably within two or three years.
+
+In Acts, chapter 8-9, we read:
+
+"And Saul was consenting unto his death (Stephen). And at that time there
+was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they
+were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria,
+except the apostles.
+
+"And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation
+over him.
+
+"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and
+hailing men and women, committed them to prison.
+
+"And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings, and slaughter against the
+disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters
+to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether
+they were men or women, he might bring them bound, unto Jerusalem.
+
+"And as he journeyed he came near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shone
+round about him a light from heaven.
+
+"And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him: 'Saul, Saul,
+why persecutest thou me?'
+
+"And he said: 'Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord said: 'I am Jesus, whom
+thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'
+
+"And he trembling and astonished, said: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me do?'
+
+"And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the city, and it shall be
+told thee what thou must do.'
+
+"And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but
+seeing no man.
+
+"And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no
+man; but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
+
+"And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.
+
+"And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, and to him
+said the Lord in a vision: 'Ananias;' and he said: 'Lord, behold, I am
+here.' And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the street called
+Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus;
+for behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias
+coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.'
+Then Ananias answered: 'Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much
+evil he hath done by thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority
+from the high priests to bind all that call on thy name.' But the Lord said
+unto him: 'Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name
+before the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel. For I will show him
+how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.'
+
+"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his
+hands on him, said: 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto
+thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive
+thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' And immediately there fell
+from his eyes, as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and
+arose and was baptized."
+
+Like all those who have entered cosmic consciousness, Paul sought the
+blessing of solitude, that he might readjust himself to his changed
+viewpoint, since he now saw things in the light of the larger
+consciousness.
+
+He says:
+
+"Immediately I conferred, not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to
+Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into
+Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus."
+
+The irresistible longing to get away from the sights and sounds of the
+external world, is one of the most characteristic phases of Illumination.
+It is only in order that they may take up the work of bringing to others
+this great blessing that those who have entered into the larger
+consciousness, eventually bring themselves to enter the life of the world.
+
+Thus, we find that Paul's great desire to bring the light to others, took
+him again to Damascus; and from the records we have of his utterances and
+his mode of living, we may gather some idea of the great change which
+Illumination made in him.
+
+Certain statements, which characterize all who possess cosmic
+consciousness, in any degree of fullness, emanate from the converted Paul.
+He says:
+
+"I must needs glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions
+and revelations of the Lord--for if I should desire to glory I shall not be
+foolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should
+account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And
+by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations--wherefore that I
+should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
+a messenger of Satan to buffet me."
+
+One of the characteristics of the Illumined is a deep humility. This is
+not in any sense an abasement of the self; not in any sense a feeling that
+it is necessary to "bow down and worship;" nor yet a tinge of that nameless
+fear, which the carnal-minded self feels in the presence of exalted beings.
+
+It is a humility born of the desire to make every one know and feel a sense
+of kinship with him; he hesitates to reveal all that has been revealed to
+him, lest those who hear his words may think he is either "speaking
+foolishly," through egotism, or else that they may look upon him as a being
+superior, more exalted, than themselves. And a divine compassion and love
+for his fellow being characterizes the Illumined. Again, Paul wishes to
+make clear the fact that he is still living in the physical body; living
+the life of a body, and until liberated from the conditions that influence
+the external world, he is himself subject to the lesser consciousness, and
+he does not want them to expect more of the personal self, than that
+personal self is capable of, under the conditions in which he lives.
+
+He desires no personal exaltation, or praise, therefore he hesitates to
+speak fully of his own revelations, but prefers to teach by reference to
+the experiences of others.
+
+Nevertheless, he tries to make clear the fact that he is not merely
+preaching a "belief," which he has embraced because of doubt or fear, or
+because it is a creed. Indeed, he is free from the "law" and is, therefore,
+not merely following a system, neither the old one which he has abandoned,
+nor a new one which he has accepted. He speaks from the "Lord," which is no
+other than the highest authority that man may know--namely, the authority
+that comes from the realization of his own imperishable godhood--the effect
+of cosmic consciousness.
+
+He says:
+
+"For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel as preached by
+me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor
+was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Christ.
+
+"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. But before faith came, we
+were kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
+afterwards be revealed. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ.
+For with freedom did Christ set us free."
+
+This we take to refer to his former adherence to, and belief in, the system
+of worship taught by the Jews, as a necessary and probably the only "way of
+salvation" acceptable to God. He wishes his hearers to understand that he
+is not bound by adherence to any creed; neither the old one, nor yet the
+new one, but that what he preached came from the light of cosmic
+consciousness, in which there is no law, nor sense of law. Cosmic
+consciousness gives to the illumined one a sense of freedom (Christ means
+cosmic consciousness, and not a personality).
+
+Cosmic consciousness confers, above all else, perhaps, a sense of freedom
+from every form of bondage.
+
+The duty and the obligations that bind the average person, are impossible
+to the cosmically conscious one. Not that he displays indifference toward
+the welfare and the rights of others. Far from that, he feels an added
+sense of responsibility for the irresponsible; an overwhelming compassion
+for the unfortunate, and a relationship greater than ever to mankind.
+
+But this sense of freedom causes him to do all _in love_, which he hitherto
+did because it was so "laid down in the law."
+
+Again St. Paul makes this plain:
+
+"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness,
+goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such as these there
+is no law--neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
+creature."
+
+When we are armored with the "fruit of the spirit," we have no need for
+rules of conduct; for methods of salvation; or for any of the bonds that
+are necessary to the merely sense-conscious man.
+
+Plainly, Paul recognized the fact that systems of religion, of philosophy,
+of rules and ethics of intercourse, are necessary only so long as man
+remains on the sense-conscious plane. When Illumination comes, there comes
+with it absolute freedom. God does not want to be worshipped on bended
+knee; by rites and ceremonies; by obedience to commandments, but the
+undisciplined soul acquires power and poise through these exercises, and in
+time grows to the full stature of god-consciousness.
+
+Nor is intellectual greatness to be confounded with the godlike character
+of the one who has attained to Illumination.
+
+Elsewhere in these pages we have made the distinction between knowledge and
+wisdom. Knowledge alone can never bring a soul into the path of
+Illumination. Wisdom will point the way, but love is the unerring guide to
+the very goal.
+
+St. Paul's expression of this fact is concise, and to the point. This
+observation alone, stamps him as one possessing a very high degree of
+realization of what cosmic consciousness is.
+
+"If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him
+become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is
+foolishness to God."
+
+The worldly wise man or woman asks "how much do I get?" The truly wise
+person cares nothing at all for possessions. He only asks "how much can I
+give?"
+
+And although we find in the marts of commercialism a contempt for the
+gullible, and the credulous; the trusting and the confiding, let it be
+known that the "smart" bargainer will indeed smart for his smartness, for
+in the light of cosmic consciousness, this alleged "wisdom" of men,
+appears as utter foolishness; wasted effort; a perversion of opportunity.
+
+Because "all these things shall pass away."
+
+Love alone is imperishable.
+
+Love alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act
+from motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.
+
+Again says St. Paul:
+
+"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am
+as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
+
+"And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
+knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
+not love, I am nothing.
+
+"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be
+burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
+
+"_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
+
+"But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be
+tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away.
+For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect
+is come, that which is in part shall be done away."
+
+It must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the
+prophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the
+community.
+
+The ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews.
+St. Paul's exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has
+entered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his
+open avowal that there was a far greater power--a more exalted state of
+consciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of "knowing all
+mysteries;" that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order
+that they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the
+perfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no
+one truly who became "a new creature", as he characterized this change,
+ever exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or
+"superior," or "holy," in the sense the latter word had been used.
+
+How, then, would they know when they had attained to this state of
+consciousness, of which he spoke, and which they but dimly understood?
+
+How might they know when they had found this great love that was to make
+them "a new creature"?
+
+First of all, they might know because:
+
+_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
+
+Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not
+itself; is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is
+not provoked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness,
+but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things;
+hopeth all things; endureth all things.
+
+In fact, _LOVE NEVER FAILETH_. Love is always a safe guide. No matter what
+may be said to the contrary; no matter how much suffering it entails; no
+matter how seemingly fruitless the sacrifice; or how ungrateful the
+results, _love_ never faileth.
+
+How can it fail when we "seek not our own," but only love for love's own
+sake, without regard to compensation or gratitude?
+
+St. Paul, with all who have expressed in any considerable degree this
+cosmic realization, seems to have expected a time, when cosmic
+consciousness should become so general, as to bring the kingdom of love
+upon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been
+prophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the "signs of the
+times" that were to usher in The Dawn.
+
+Moreover, the idea that there shall come a time when death shall be
+overcome, is a persistent part of every prophecy, and of every religious
+cult. In these days we find that science is speculating upon the
+probability of discovering a specific for senile death, as well as for the
+final elimination of death from disease and accidents.
+
+Whether or not this is to be the manner of "overcoming the last enemy," the
+fact remains that the almost universally held idea of physical immortality
+has a basis in fact, which this postulate of science symbolizes.
+
+"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortality must put
+on immortality, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
+and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the
+saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
+
+So said St. Paul, and his words show clearly that before his time there had
+been a prophecy and belief in the final triumph of love over death, not as
+an article of faith, but as a common knowledge.
+
+St. Paul speaks of the time when "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all
+be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
+
+"And then come to the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God,
+even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule, all authority, and
+all power."
+
+Unquestionably, if all men on earth in the flesh and in the astral, were to
+come into the light of the cosmic consciousness, there would be no need for
+laws, for authority or power. The kingdom, which signifies the earth as a
+planet, would indeed be delivered to God, which means Love, and "Love never
+faileth."
+
+And while we admit that these words of St. Paul may be applied to
+individual attainment of cosmic consciousness, and not refer to an era of
+earth life, in which the fruits of this larger consciousness are to be
+gathered in the physical, yet we maintain that the argument for such an
+hypothesis is strong indeed. He says:
+
+"For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the revealing of the
+sons of God."
+
+For the term "sons of God" interpret "those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness," and we may readily parallel this with the many allusions to
+the earth's redemption, with which history is strewn.
+
+To "redeem" the earth is quite comparable with the idea of redeeming any
+part of the earth's surface--either as a nation, or as a tract of
+land--which is not yielding the best that it is capable of.
+
+In the cosmogony of the heavens, the planet earth may well be likened to a
+territory that has possibilities, but which needs cultivation;
+encouragement; work; to bring out its possibilities and make it a place of
+comfort and enlightenment.
+
+So we have been informed--and an understanding of deeper occultism will
+bear out the information--that this earth is being made a "fit habitation
+for the gods" (i.e., cosmically conscious beings, to whom love is the only
+authority necessary).
+
+Paul clearly alludes to the redemption of the body, as well as the
+continuance of the life of the soul, when he says:
+
+"For the creation was subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason
+of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be
+delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of
+the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
+travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also,
+WHICH HAVE THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves, waiting for
+our adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body."
+
+St. Paul declared that even those who had glimpsed that wonderful
+Illumination (which have the first fruits of the spirit), are not free from
+the travail of the sense-conscious world, until such time as the cycle has
+been completed, and those who "are already in Christ, and then they that
+are Christ's at his coming," shall have made possible the perfected
+creation, and brought about the reign of love on earth.
+
+So that, when a sufficient number of souls shall have attained to this
+Illumination (cosmic consciousness), the "last enemy shall be overcome."
+That this present era gives promise of this hope, is evident.
+
+The attainment of cosmic consciousness brings with it immunity from
+reincarnation, as a necessity--as a law, but it does not provide against
+the coming of avatars--"sons of God," who are to "deliver Creation from the
+bondage of corruption."
+
+This also is clearly stated by Paul:
+
+"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. For the law of the
+spirit of life in Christ made me free from the law of sin and death."
+
+There never is any doubt in the minds of those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness, that they are spiritual beings and immortal--free from the
+law of karma; neither is there any thought of evil or of condemnation.
+
+They know that men are gods in embryo and that until they have been born
+into the cosmic consciousness--the realization of their _reality as
+spirit_, they must travail; but this sense-conscious state is not to be
+condemned any more than the child is to be condemned because it has not
+yet grown to adultship.
+
+The advice of St. Paul himself was simple enough and straight-forward
+enough. It was devoid of all subtleties; free from complexity; free from
+fear, or haste, or doubt, or strife, while confidently awaiting the
+universal attainment of Illumination.
+
+To the question as to what path to follow; what should be done to gain
+this great boon, if the law of the ancient Hebrews was not to be followed
+in its literal significance, Paul said:
+
+"Whatsoever things are honest; whatsoever things are true; whatsoever
+things are just; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely;
+whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there
+be any praise, _THINK ON THESE THINGS_."
+
+Which is to say, do not seek the letter of the way of Illumination. Do not
+look for forms and ceremonies and rules and systems, but look for that
+which is clean and pure and good wherever it may be found.
+
+In St. Paul we have fulfilled all the points that characterize those who
+have been blessed with the great Illumination.
+
+His broad outlook upon humanity, which refused to see evil or to condemn
+where formerly he had been noted for his zeal in bringing to condemnation
+all whom he believed to be heretics; his conviction of immortality; his
+humility, as far as personal aggrandizement was concerned; the great light
+in which was revealed to him the truth; the annihilation of the idea of sin
+and death; the realization that systems and laws and methods of worship and
+giving of alms and all the by-paths which formerly he had deemed necessary,
+were as naught compared to the great illuminating, all-embracing power of
+Love--the Savior whose kingdom should sometime be established upon
+earth--the time being when cosmic consciousness should be general.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MOHAMMED
+
+
+Despite the fact that the followers of Mohammed, the prophet, are among the
+most fanatical and prejudiced of all religious sects, Mohammed himself was
+unquestionably among the Illumined Ones of earth, and had attained and
+retained a high degree of cosmic consciousness.
+
+The wars; the persecutions; the horrors that have been committed in the
+name of Islam, are perhaps a little more atrocious than any in history
+although the unspeakable cruelties of the Inquisition would seem to have no
+parallel.
+
+The religion of Persia, wrongly alluded to as "fire-worship," marks
+Zoroaster as among the Illuminati, but as the present volume is concerned,
+in the religious aspect of it, only with those cases of Illumination which
+we are classifying among the present great religious systems, we cite the
+case of Mohammed, the Arab, as one clearly establishing the characteristic
+points of Illumination.
+
+When Mohammed was born, in the early part of the fifth century, the
+condition of his countrymen was primitive in the extreme.
+
+The most powerful force among them was tribal or clan loyalty, and a
+corresponding hatred of, and readiness to make war with, opposing clans.
+
+Although at the time of Mohammed's birth, Christianity had made great
+headway in different parts of the old world, it had made very little
+impress upon the Arabs. They worshipped their tribal gods, and there are
+traces of a belief in a supreme God (Allah ta-ala), but they were not as a
+race inclined to a deeply religious sentiment.
+
+One and all, whether given to superstitions or denying a belief in Allah,
+they dreaded the dark after-life and although the different tribes made
+their yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, and faithfully kissed the stone that
+had fallen from heaven in the days of Adam, the inspiration of their
+ancient prophets had long since died, and a new prophet was expected and
+looked for.
+
+The yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, which was at once the center of trade and
+the goal of the religious enthusiast, was observed by all the tribes of
+Arabia, but it is a question whether the pilgrimage was not more often made
+in a holiday spirit than in that of the devotee to the _Kaabeh,_ the most
+sacred temple in all Arabia.
+
+Indeed, it is agreed by all commentators, that the ancient Arab, "In the
+Time of Ignorance," before the coming of Mohammed, knew little and cared
+less about those spiritual qualities that look beyond the physical; not
+questioning, as did Mohammed, what lies beyond this vale of strife, whose
+only exit is the dark and inscrutable face of death.
+
+Besides the tribal gods, individual households had their special Penates,
+to whom was due the first and the last salam of the returning or out-going
+host. But in spite of all this superstitious apparatus, the Arabs were
+never a religious people. In the old days, as now, they were reckless,
+skeptical, materialistic. They had their gods and their divining arrows,
+but they were ready to demolish both if the responses proved contrary to
+their wishes. A great majority believed in no future life, nor in a
+reckoning day of good and evil.
+
+Such, then, was the condition of thought among the various tribes when
+Mohammed was born.
+
+It was not, however, until he was past forty years of age, that the
+revelations came to him, and although it was some time later that these
+were set down, together with his admonitions and counsel to his followers,
+it is believed that they are for the most part well authenticated, as the
+Koran was compiled during Mohammed's lifetime, and thus, in the original,
+doubtless represents an authentic account of Mohammed's experiences.
+
+It is related that Mohammed's father died before his son's birth and his
+mother six years later. Thus Mohammed was left to the care of his
+grandfather, the virtual chief of Mecca. The venerable chief lived but two
+years and Mohammed, who was a great favorite with his grandfather, became
+the special charge of his uncle, Aboo-Talib, whose devotion never wavered,
+even during the trying later years, when Mohammed's persecutions caused the
+uncle untold hardships and trials.
+
+At an early age Mohammed took up the life of a sheep herder, caring for the
+herds of his kinsmen. This step became necessary because the once princely
+fortune of his noble ancestors had dwindled to almost the extreme of
+poverty, but although the occupation of sheep herder was despised by the
+tribes, it is said that Mohammed himself in later life often alluded to his
+early calling as the time when "God called him."
+
+At the age of twenty-five he took up the more desirable post of camel
+driver, and was taken into the employ of a wealthy kinswoman, Khadeejeh,
+whom he afterwards married, although she was fifteen years his senior--a
+disparity in age which means far more in the East, where physical charm
+and beauty are the only requisites for a wife, than it does in the West
+where men look more to the mental endowments of a wife than to the fleeting
+charm of youth.
+
+It is also to Mohammed's credit that his devotion to his first wife never
+wavered to the day of her death and, indeed, as long as he himself lived
+he spoke with reverence and deep affection of Khadeejeh.
+
+We learn that the next fifteen years were lived in the usual manner of a
+man of his station. Khadeejeh brought him wealth and this gave him the
+necessary time and ease in which to meditate, and the never-varying
+devotion and trust of his faithful wife brought him repose and the power to
+aid his impoverished uncle, and to be regarded among the tribes as a man
+of influence.
+
+His simple, unostentatious, and even ascetic life during these years was
+noted. He was known as a man of extremely refined tastes and sensitive
+though not querulous nature. A commentator says of him:
+
+"His constitution was extremely delicate. He was nervously afraid of bodily
+pain; he would sob and roar under it. Eminently unpractical in the common
+things of life, he was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation
+of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling.
+
+"He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain," it has been said of
+him.
+
+"He was most indulgent to his inferiors and would not allow his awkward
+little page to be scolded, whatever he did. He was most affectionate toward
+his family. He was very fond of children, and would stop them in the
+streets and pat their little cheeks. He never struck anyone in his life.
+The worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was: 'What has
+come to him--may his forehead be darkened with mud.'
+
+"When asked to curse some one he replied: 'I have not been sent to curse,
+but to be a mercy to mankind.' He visited the sick, followed any bier he
+met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes,
+milked his goats and waited upon himself.
+
+"He never withdrew his hand out of another's palm, and turned not before
+the other had turned.
+
+"He was the most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and
+most agreeable in conversation; those who saw him were suddenly filled with
+reverence; those who came to him, loved him. They who described him would
+say: 'I have never seen his like, either before or after.'
+
+"He was, however, very nervous and restless withal, often low-spirited,
+downcast as to heart and eyes. Yet he would at times suddenly break through
+these broodings, become gay, talkative, jocular, chiefly among his own."
+
+This picture corresponds with the temperament which is alluded to as the
+"artistic," or "psychic" temperament, and allowing that in these days there
+is much posing and pretense, we still must admit that the quality known as
+"temperament" is a psychological study suggesting a stage of development
+hitherto unclassified. It is said also, that in his youth Mohammed was
+subject to attacks of catalepsy, evidencing an organism peculiarly
+"psychic."
+
+It is evident that Mohammed regarded himself as one having a mission upon
+earth, even before he had received the revelations which announced him as a
+prophet chosen of Allah, for he long brooded over the things of the spirit,
+and although he had not, up to his fortieth year, openly protested against
+the fetish worship of the Kureysh, yet he was regarded as one who had a
+different idea of worship from that of the men with whom he came in
+contact.
+
+Gradually, he became more and more inclined to solitude, and made frequent
+excursions into the hills, and in his solitary wanderings, he suffered
+agonies of doubt and self distrust, fearing lest he be self-deceived, and
+again, lest he be indeed called to become a prophet of God and fail in his
+mission.
+
+Here in a cave, the revelation came. Mohammed had spent nights and days in
+fasting and prayer beseeching God for some sign, some word that would
+settle his doubts and agonies of distrust and longing for an answer to
+life's riddle.
+
+It is related that suddenly during the watches of the night, Mohammed awoke
+to find his solitary cave filled with a great and wondrous light out of
+which issued a voice saying: "Cry, cry aloud." "What shall I cry?" he
+answers, and the voice answered:
+
+"Cry in the name of thy Lord who hath created; He hath created man from a
+clot of blood. Cry--and thy Lord is the most bountiful, who hath taught by
+the pen; He hath taught man that which he knew not."
+
+It is reported that almost immediately, Mohammed felt his intelligence
+illuminated with the light of spiritual understanding, and all that had
+previously vexed his spirit with doubt and non-comprehension, was clear
+as crystal to his understanding. Nevertheless, this feeling of assurance
+did not remain with him at that time, definitely, for we are told that
+"Mohammed arose trembling and went to Khadeejeh and told her what he had
+seen and heard; and she did her woman's part and believed in him and
+soothed his terror and bade him hope for the future. Yet he could not
+believe in himself. Was he not perhaps, mad? or possessed by a devil?
+Were these voices of a truth from God? And so he went again on the
+solitary wanderings, hearing strange sounds, and thinking them at one
+time the testimony of heaven and at another the temptings of Satan, or
+the ravings of madness. Doubting, wondering, hoping, he had fain put an
+end to a life which had become intolerable in its changings from the
+hope of heaven to the hell of despair, when he again heard the voice:
+'Thou art the messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' Conviction at length
+seized hold upon him; he was indeed to bring a message of good tidings
+to the Arabs, the message of God through His angel Gabriel. He went back
+to his faithful wife exhausted in mind and body, but with his doubts
+laid at rest."
+
+With the history of the spread of Mohammed's message we are not concerned
+in this volume. The fact that his own nearest of kin, those of his own
+household, believed in his divine mission, and held to him with unwavering
+faith during the many years of persecution that followed, is proof that
+Mohammed was indeed a man who had attained Illumination. If the condition
+of woman did not rise to the heights which we have a right to expect of the
+cosmic conscious man of the future, we must remember that eastern
+traditions have ever given woman an inferior place, and for the matter of
+that, St. Paul himself seems to have shared the then general belief in the
+inferiority of the female.
+
+It is undeniable that Mohammed's domestic relations were of the most
+agreeable character; his kindness and consideration were without parallel;
+his harem was made up for the most part of women who were refused and
+scorned by other men; widows of his friends. And the fact that the prophet
+was a man of the most abstemious habits argues the claim that compassion
+and kindness was the motive in most instances where he took to himself
+another and yet another wife.
+
+However, the points which we are here dealing with, are those which
+directly relate to Mohammed's unquestioned illumination and the spirit of
+his utterances as contained in the Ku-ran, corroborate the experience of
+Buddha, of Jesus, and of all whose illumination has resulted in the
+establishment of a religious system.
+
+Mohammed taught, first of all, the fact of the one God. "There is no God
+but Allah," was his cry, and, following the example, or at least
+paralleling the example of Jesus, he "destroyed their idols" and
+substituted the worship of one God, in place of the tribal deities, which
+were a constant source of disputation among the clans.
+
+Compare the following, which is one of the five daily prayers of the
+faithful Muslim, with the Lord's prayer as used in Christian theology.
+
+  "In the name of God, the compassionate--the merciful.
+  Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds,
+  The compassionate, the merciful.
+  The king of the day of judgment.
+  Thee do we worship and of Thee do we beg assistance.
+  Guide us in the right way,
+  The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious,
+  Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring."
+
+Mohammed never tired of telling his disciples and followers that God was
+"The Very-Forgiving." Among the many and sometimes strangely varied
+attributes of God (The Absolute), we find this characteristic most strongly
+and persistently dwelt upon--the ever ready forgiveness and mercifulness of
+God.
+
+Every _soorah_ of the _Kur-an_ begins with the words: "In the name of God,
+the compassionate, the merciful," but, even as Jesus laid persistent
+emphasis upon the _love_ of God, and yet up to very recent times,
+Christianity taught the _fear and wrath_ of God, losing sight of the one
+great and important fact that _God is love_, and that _love is God_, so the
+Muslims overlooked the _real_ message, and the greatness and the power and
+the fearfulness of God, is the incentive of the followers of the Illumined
+Mohammed.
+
+The following extracts from the Kur-an are almost identical with many
+passages in the Holy Scriptures of the Christian, and are comparable with
+the sayings of the Lord Buddha.
+
+"God. There is no God but He, the ever-living, the ever-subsisting. Slumber
+seizeth Him not nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens
+and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him,
+save by His permission?"
+
+The Muslim is a fatalist, but this may be due less to the teachings of the
+prophet than to the peculiar quality of the Arab nature, which makes him
+stake everything, even his own liberty upon the cast of a die.
+
+The leading doctrine of the all-powerfulness of God seems to warrant the
+belief in fatalism--belief which offers a stumbling block to all
+theologians, all philosophers, all thinkers. If God is omnipotent,
+omnipresent, omniscient, how and where and in what manner can be explained
+the necessity of individual effort?
+
+This problem is not at all clear to the western mind, and it is equally
+obscure to that of the East.
+
+It is said of Mohammed that when asked concerning the doctrine of
+"fatalism" he would show more anger than at any other question that could
+be put to him. He found it impossible to explain that while all knowledge
+was God's, yet the individual was responsible for his own salvation, by
+virtue of his good deeds and words. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that
+Mohammed possessed the key to this seeming riddle; but how could it be
+possible to speak in a language which was totally incomprehensible to them
+of this knowledge--the language of cosmic consciousness?
+
+Like Jesus, who said: "Many things I have to tell you, but you can not bear
+(understand) them now," so, we may well believe that Mohammed was
+hard-pressed to find language comprehensible to his followers, in which to
+explain the all-knowingness and all-powerfulness of God, and at the same
+time, not have them fall into the error of the _fatal_ doctrine of
+fatalism.
+
+But throughout all his teachings Mohammed's chief concern seemed to be to
+draw his people away from their worship of idols, and to this end he laid
+constant and repeated emphasis upon the one-ness of God; the all-ness, the
+completeness of the one God; always adding "_the Compassionate_, the
+Loving."
+
+This constant allusion to the all-ness of God is in line with
+all who have attained to cosmic consciousness. Nothing more
+impresses the illumined mind, than the fact that the universe is
+One--uni--(one)--verse--(song)--one glorious harmony when taken in its
+entirety, but when broken up and segregated, and set at variance, we
+find discord, even as the score of a grand operatic composition when
+played in unison makes perfect harmony but when incomplete, is
+nerve-racking.
+
+Like all inspired teachers, Mohammed taught the end of the world of sense,
+and the coming of the day of judgment, and the final reign of peace and
+love. This may, of course, be interpreted literally, and applied to a life
+other than that which is to be lived on this planet, but it may also with
+equal logic be assumed that Mohammed foresaw the dawn of cosmic
+consciousness as a race-endowment, belonging to the inheritors of this
+sphere called earth. In either event the ultimate is the same, whether the
+one who suffers and attains, comes into his own in some plane or place in
+the heavens, or whether he becomes at-one with God, The Absolute Love and
+Power of the spheres, and "inherits the earth," in the days of the
+on-coming higher degree of consciousness, which we are here considering.
+
+That Mohammed realized the nothingness of form and ritual, except it be
+accompanied by sincerity and understanding, is evident in the following:
+
+"Your turning your faces _in prayer_, towards the East and the West, is not
+piety; but the pious is he who believeth in God, and the last day, and in
+the angels and in the Scripture; and the prophets, and who giveth money
+notwithstanding his love of it to relations and orphans, and to the needy
+and the son of the road, and to the askers for the _freeing of slaves_; and
+who performeth prayer and giveth the alms, and those who perform their
+covenant when they covenant; and the patient in adversity and affliction
+and the time of violence. These are they who have been true; and these are
+they who fear God."
+
+Parallel with the doctrine taught by Buddha, and Jesus, is the advice to
+overcome evil with good. In our modern metaphysical language, we must
+dissolve the vibrations of hate, by the power of love, instead of opposing
+hate with hate, war with war, revenge with revenge.
+
+Mohammed expressed this doctrine of non-resistance thus:
+
+"Turn away evil by that which is better; and lo, he, between whom and
+thyself was enmity, shall become as though he were a warm friend."
+
+"But none is endowed with this, except those who have been patient and none
+is endowed with it, except he who is greatly favored."
+
+Mohammed meant by these words "he who is greatly favored," to explain that
+in order to see the wisdom and the glory of such conduct, one must have
+attained to spiritual consciousness. This was especially a new doctrine to
+the people to whom he was preaching, because it was considered cowardice to
+fail to resent a blow. Pride of family and birth was the strongest trait in
+the Arab nature.
+
+In furtherance of this doing good to others, we find these words: "If ye
+are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at
+least return it; verily. God taketh count of these things. If there be any
+under a difficulty wait until it be easy; but if ye remit it as alms, it
+will be better for you."
+
+Mohammed here referred to debtors and creditors; as he was talking to
+traders, merchants, men who were constantly buying and selling, this
+admonition was in line with his teaching, which was to "do unto others
+that which you would that they do unto you."
+
+In further compliance with his doctrine of doing good for good's sake
+Mohammed said: "If ye manifest alms, good will it be; but if ye conceal
+them and give them to the poor, it will be better for you; and it will
+expiate some of your sins."
+
+Alms-giving, as an ostentatious display among church members, was here
+given its rightful place. It is well and good to give openly to
+organizations, but it is better to give to individuals who need it,
+secretly and quietly to give, without hope, or expectation, or desire for
+thanks, or for reward, to give for the love of giving, for the sole wish to
+make others happy. This desire to bestow upon others the happiness which
+has come to them, is a characteristic of the cosmic conscious man or woman.
+
+It is comforting to know that Mohammed, like Buddha and The Man of Sorrows;
+and like Sri Ramakrishna, the saint of India, at length attained unto that
+peaceful calm that comes to one who has found the way of Illumination. It
+is doubtless impossible for the merely sense-conscious person to form any
+adequate idea of the inward urge; the agony of doubts and questionings; the
+imperative necessity such a one feels, to _KNOW_.
+
+The sense-conscious person reads of the lives of these men and wonders why
+they could not be happy with the things of the world. The temptation that
+we are told came to Jesus in the garden, is typical of the state of
+transition from sense-consciousness to cosmic consciousness. The
+sense-conscious person regards the _things of the senses_ as important. He
+is actuated by ambition or self-seeking or by love of physical comfort or
+by physical activity, to _obtain_ the possessions of sense. To such as
+these, the agonies of mind; the physical hardships; the ever-ready
+forgiveness and the desire for peace and love of the Illuminate seem almost
+weaknesses. Therefore, they can not fully comprehend the satisfaction which
+comes to the one who has come into a realization of illumination, through
+the years of mental tribulation such as that endured by Mohammed and Jesus
+and Buddha.
+
+We are told that the prophet repeatedly refuted the suggestion of his
+adoring followers that he was God himself come to earth.
+
+"It is wonderful," says one of his commentators, "with his temptations,
+how great a humility was ever is, how little he assumed of all the godlike
+attributes men forced upon him. His whole life is one long argument for his
+loyalty to truth. He had but one answer for his worshippers, 'I am no more
+than a man; I am only human.' * * * He was sublimely confident of this
+single attribute that he was the messenger of the Lord of the daybreak, and
+that the words he spake came verily from him. He was fully persuaded that
+God had sent him to do a great work among his people in Arabia. Nervous to
+the verge of madness, subject to hysteria, given to wild dreaming in
+solitary places, his was a temperament that easily lends itself to
+religious enthusiasm."
+
+While it may be argued that Mohammed did not possess cosmic consciousness
+in the degree of fullness which we find in the life of St. Paul, for
+example, we must take into consideration the temperament of the Arab, and
+the conditions under which he labored. But that he had attained a high
+degree of Illumination is beyond dispute. This fact is evidenced by the
+following salient points characteristic of cosmic consciousness: A fine
+sensitive, highly-strung organization; a deep and serious thoughtfulness,
+especially regarding the realities of life; an indifference to the call of
+personal ambition; love of solitude and the mental urge that demands to
+know the answer to life's riddle.
+
+Following the time of illumination on Mount Hara we find Mohammed
+possessing a conviction of the truth of immortality and the goodness of
+God; we find him also with a wonderful power to draw people to him in
+loving service; and the irresistible desire to bring to his people the
+message of immortal life, and the necessity to look more to spiritual
+things than to the things of the flesh. Added to this, we find Mohammed
+changed from a shrinking, sensitive youth, given to much reflection and
+silent meditation, into a man with perfect confidence in his own mission
+and in his ultimate victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
+
+
+While the Swedenborgians, as a religious sect, are not numerically
+sufficient to be reckoned among the world's great religions, it is yet a
+fact that the followers of the great Swedish seer and scientist hold a
+prominent place among the innumerable sects which the beginning of this
+century finds flourishing.
+
+Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, in January, 1688, and lived to the
+advanced age of eighty-four years.
+
+Swedenborg was well born; he was the son of a bishop of the Swedish church,
+and during his lifetime held many positions of honor. He was a friend and
+adviser of the king, and his expert knowledge of mining engineering gave
+him a place among the scientists of his age.
+
+He was a voluminous writer, his early work being confined to the phases of
+materialistic science, notably on mines and metals, and later upon man, in
+his physiological aspect.
+
+His "De Cerebro and Psychologia Rationales," published in his fifty-seventh
+year, showed a different Swedenborg from the one to whom his colleagues
+were accustomed to refer with much respect.
+
+This book dealt with man, not as a product of brute creation, but as an
+evolutionary creature, having at least a possibility of divine origin. It
+is, however, his "Arcana Coelestia" upon which "The Church of the New
+Jerusalem" is founded; and it is this work which caused Swedenborg's
+friends and colleagues to determine that he had become insane. It is, in
+fact, only within very recent years, that the so-called scientific world
+has deigned to regard Swedenborg's revelations with any degree of serious
+and respectful attention.
+
+Swedenborg's Illumination was not, like that of so many others, who have
+founded a new religion, a sudden influx of spiritual consciousness, but
+rather a gradual leading up to the inevitable goal, by virtue of serious
+thought, deep study, and a high order of mentality.
+
+But that the Swedish seer received, in full measure, the blessing of cosmic
+consciousness, is beyond doubt.
+
+Swedenborg's extremely simple habits of life; his freedom from any desire
+for display, or for those social advantages into which he was born; his
+gentleness and unassuming manner, of which much is written by his
+followers, all point to him as one upon whom the blessing might readily
+descend. Swedenborg was a vegetarian, but this seems not to be a necessary
+characteristic of those possessing illumination, although, when cosmic
+consciousness shall have become almost general, vegetarianism must
+inevitably come with it, as animal life will disappear from the earth.
+
+Swedenborg, like many others who have perceived the cosmic light, evidently
+believed that he had been specially selected and consecrated for the work
+of the new church. That is, he took his illumination, not as an initiation
+into the higher degrees of cosmic truth, but as a special and personal
+revelation. This view characterizes those who founded a new, or a reformed
+religious system, while as a matter of truth, the light that comes is a
+part of the cosmic plan, and not, as Swedenborg and others imagine, as a
+personal revelation.
+
+However, Swedenborg considered himself a direct instrument in the hands of
+God, and God is alluded to as a personality. He believed that his great
+mission was to disclose the true nature of the Bible, and to prove that it
+was actually the inspired word of God, having an esoteric meaning, which
+has wrongly been interpreted to apply to the creation of a material world,
+and to its history and its people, but that when understood, it explains
+clearly, the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their relation to
+each other. It should be remembered that at the time Swedenborg wrote his
+theological works, the church had fallen into rank materialism and
+superstition. That Swedenborg should have received his illumination, or
+revelation, direct from the Lord, only serves to prove that the mortal
+consciousness clothes the revelation with whatever personality appeals to
+it, as having authority.
+
+Thus, the angel Gabriel was the dictator in the case of Mohammed, and the
+"Blessed Mother" of the Hindu reveals to them the vision of _mukti_.
+Swedenborg says of his vision: "God appeared to me and said, 'I am the Lord
+God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold
+the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures. I will myself dictate to thee
+what thou shalt write.'"
+
+In "The True Christian Religion," published shortly before his death he
+says: "Since the Lord can not manifest Himself in person as has been shown,
+and yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a new church,
+which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He is to do it, by means of a
+man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his
+understanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has
+manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me on this office, and
+that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into
+the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells and also
+to speak with spirits and angels, and this now continually for many years,
+I testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have
+not received anything that pertains to the doctrines of that church from my
+angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word."
+
+It is stated with great positiveness by Swedenborg's followers, and indeed,
+apparently by the seer himself, if we may take as authoritative, the
+translations of his works, that the revelations accorded to him covered a
+period of many years, whereas, we find in most instances of cosmic
+consciousness, the illumined ones have alluded to some specific time, as
+the great event, even while claiming that the effect of this illumination
+remains indefinitely--in fact, forms a part of a wider area of
+consciousness which is ever increasing.
+
+But when we take the numerous instances of revelations, in which the devout
+ones firmly believe that they and they alone have been accorded the vision,
+we must realize that this phenomenon is impersonal, looked at as a favor to
+any one human being. By that we mean that Illumination comes to every soul
+who has earned it, just as mathematically as the sun seems to set, after
+the earth has made its hourly journey.
+
+Perhaps this comparison is not as clear as to say: when the normal child
+has grown to manhood or womanhood, his consciousness has widened, beyond
+that of the infant; not excluding that of the infant but inclusive of all
+hitherto acquired knowledge. Without in any degree lessening the
+importance and the verity of Swedenborg's visions, it may be assumed that
+his record of these visions and their meaning has partaken more or less of
+the limitations of mortal mind.
+
+Spiritual consciousness can not be set down in terms of sense. The external
+world symbolizes spiritual truths; each interpreter must of necessity weave
+into his interpretation and attempt at finite expression of these truths,
+something of his own mortal consciousness; and this "mortal mind"
+consciousness is bound to partake of the time and age, and conditions of
+environment of the person who has experienced the revelation.
+
+Making due allowance, therefore, for the impossibility of exact expression
+of any spiritual illumination, we find in the revelation of Swedenborg
+exactly what we find in all who have attained to cosmic consciousness,
+namely, the absolute, confidential assurance of immortal life: the
+conviction that creation is under divine love and wisdom, administered by
+Cosmic Law and order, or Justice, and the final "redemption" (i.e.,
+evolution), of all men. In his "Conjugal Love," Swedenborg touches upon the
+premise which we declare, as the foundation of all cosmic consciousness,
+namely the attainment of spiritual union with the "mate" which we believe
+to be inseparable from all creation; the reunited principle which we see
+expressed in the male and female, whether in plant, bird, animal, man, or
+angel; the "twain made one" which Jesus declared would be the sign manual
+of the coming of his kingdom; that is, the coming of cosmic
+consciousness--the kingdom of pure and perfect love upon earth as it is in
+the heavens.
+
+In Corinthians (11: 12) we read:
+
+"For as the woman is of the man so is the man also of the woman; for the
+woman is not without the man, nor the man without the woman _in the Lord_."
+
+Which is to say, that in the attainment of cosmic consciousness (_in the
+Lord_), the "twain are made one," and immortality (i.e., immunity from
+reincarnation) is gained, because of this union. God is a bi-sexual Being.
+This fact is evidenced throughout all creation. To attain to immortality
+is to become as God. In this day and age of the world we have come into a
+realization of the Father-Mother idea of godhood, clearly and literally
+signifying the coming consciousness which is bi-sexual; male and female;
+perfect counterparts, or complements and through which alone, this earth
+can be made a "fit dwelling place for gods." This, too, is the message of
+the great seer Swedenborg, as it relates to love, as it is, when rightly
+understood and interpreted, of all who have felt the blessing of
+perfection, as exemplified in Illumination.
+
+The fundamental points of Swedenborg's doctrine agree with those of all
+other Illumined ones, who have founded a system of worship; a "Way of
+Illumination" it may be called; or in whose name such systems have been
+formed. That is, he testified to:
+
+A conviction of immortality;
+
+A realization of absolute justice, whereby all souls shall finally come
+into cosmic consciousness.
+
+An actual time when Christ (the cosmic illumination) shall come to earth.
+
+A great and abiding love for and patience with the frailties of his
+sense-conscious fellow-beings;
+
+A transcendent desire to bestow upon all men, the blessing of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+Few if any, have ever attained a full and complete realization of cosmic
+consciousness and remained in the physical body.
+
+Those who have attained and retained the highest degree of this glimpse of
+the Paradise of the gods, find it practically impossible to describe or
+explain the sensations experienced, even though they are more convinced of
+the truth and the reality of this realm than of anything in the merely
+sense-conscious life.
+
+Lastly, let us not lose sight of the all-important fact that no one system,
+creed, philosophy, or way of Illumination will answer for all types and
+degrees of men. "All things work together for good" to those who have the
+keenness of vision which precedes the full attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, as well as to those who have grasped its full significance.
+
+The characteristic evidence of the potentiality of the present era of the
+world, is preeminently that of a desire for unity.
+
+This desire is expressed in all the avenues of external life; its inner
+meaning is obscured by commercialism and self-interest, as in trusts and
+labor unions, but it is there nevertheless--the symbol of the inner urge
+toward unity in consciousness.
+
+It is found in efforts at Communism, and in allied reform movements. It is
+particularly evident in the breaking down of church prejudices. In these
+days a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi find it not only expedient but
+mutually helpful, to unite in the work of municipal reform; in the
+abolition of child labor; in all things that will bring a better state of
+existence into daily human life.
+
+The business man uses the phrase "let us get together on this" without
+knowing that he is expressing in terms of sense-consciousness, the urge of
+his own and his fellow beings' inner mind, which senses the fact of our
+unescapable Brotherhood.
+
+All religious systems then, are good, as are all systems of philosophy.
+They are good because they are an attempt at bringing into the perspective
+of the mortal mind the reality of the soul and the soul life; the rule of
+the spiritually conscious ego over the physical body in order that we may
+now, in our present incarnation, claim immortality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
+BALZAC
+
+
+Passing over the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus,
+Plotinus, Marcus Aurelius, Pascal, Socrates, Plato, Aspasia, and others,
+all of whom had glimpsed, if not fully attained, cosmic consciousness, we
+come to a consideration of those cases in our own day and age, in which
+this superior consciousness has found expression through intellectual
+rather than through religious channels.
+
+Of these latter, no more illustrious example can be cited than that of
+Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord.
+
+Emerson's nature was essentially religious, but his religion was not of the
+emotional quality so often found among enthusiasts, and which is almost
+always openly expressed when this religious enthusiasm is not balanced by
+intellectuality.
+
+Analysis is frequently a foe to inspiration, but there are fare instances
+where the intellect is of such a penetrating and extraordinary quality that
+it carries the power of analysis into the unseen; in fact what we
+habitually term the unseen is a part of the visible to this type of mind.
+True intellect is a natural inheritance, a karmic attribute. The spurious
+kind is the result of education, and it invariably has its limitations. It
+stops short of the finer vibrations of consciousness and denies the reality
+of the inner life of man--which inner life constitutes the _real_ to the
+character of intellect that penetrates beyond _maya_.
+
+Of such a quality of intellect is that exemplified in Emerson. No mere
+tabulator of facts was he, but a dissector of the causes back of all the
+manifestation which he observed and studied and classified with the mental
+power of a god.
+
+Nor is there lacking ample proof that Emerson experienced the phenomenon of
+the suddenness of cosmic consciousness--a degree of which he seems to have
+possessed from earliest youth.
+
+In his essay on Nature, we find these words:
+
+"Crossing a bare common in snow puddles at twilight, under a clouded sky,
+without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I
+have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear."
+
+Emerson here alluded to a feeling of fear, which seems to have been
+experienced during a certain stage by many of those who have entered into
+cosmic consciousness. This fear is doubtless due to the presence in the
+human organism of what we may term the "animal instinct," which is an
+inheritance of the physical body. This same peculiar phenomenon oppresses
+almost everyone when coming into contact with a new and hitherto untried
+force.
+
+A certain lady, who relates her experience in entering into the cosmic
+conscious state, says: "A certain part of me was unafraid, certain, secure
+and content, at the same time my mortal consciousness felt an almost
+overwhelming sense of fear."
+
+Continuing, Emerson says:
+
+"All mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I
+see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am
+part or particle of God."
+
+Emerson's powerful intellect would naturally describe such an experience
+in intellectual terms rather than, as in the instances heretofore recorded,
+in religious phraseology, but it must not be inferred that Emerson was less
+religious, in the true sense, than was Mohammed or St. Paul.
+
+Emerson lived in an age when orthodoxy flourished, and he and his
+associates of the Transcendentalist cult, were regarded as non-religious,
+if not actually heretical. Therefore, it is that Emerson's keen intellect
+was brought to bear upon everything he encountered, not only in his own
+intimate experience but also in all that he read and heard, lest he be
+trapped into committing the error which he saw all about him, namely, of
+mistaking an accepted viewpoint as an article of actual faith. His way to
+the Great Light lay through the jungle of the mind, but he found the path
+clear and plain and he left a torchlight along the way.
+
+Emerson fully recognized the illusory character of external life, and the
+eternal verity of the soul, as witness:
+
+  "If the red slayer thinks he slays,
+    Or if the slain thinks he is slain,
+  They know not well, the subtle ways,
+    I keep and pass and turn again."
+
+Horrible as is war, because of the spirit of hate and destruction it
+embodies and keeps alive, yet the fact remains that man in his soul knows
+that he can neither slay nor be slain by the mere act of destroying the
+physical shell called the body. It is inconceivable that human beings would
+lend themselves to warfare, if they did not know, as a part of that area of
+supra-consciousness, that there is a _something_ over which bullets have no
+power.
+
+This fact, regarded as a more or less vague _belief_ to the majority,
+becomes incontrovertible fact to the person who has entered cosmic
+consciousness. His view is reversed, and where he formerly looked from the
+sense-conscious plane forward into a _possible_ spiritual plane, he now
+gazes back over the path from the spiritual heights and sees the winding
+road that led upward to the elevation, much as a traveller on the mountain
+top looks back and for the first time sees all of the devious trail over
+which he has, climbed to his present vantage point. During the journey
+there had been many times when he could only see the next step ahead, and
+nothing but his faith in the assurance of his fellow men who had attained
+the summit of that mountain, could ever have sustained him through the
+perils of the climb, but once on the heights, his backward view takes in
+the details of the journey and sees not "through a glass darkly," but in
+the clear light of achievement.
+
+Such is the effect of cosmic consciousness to the one who has seen the
+light.
+
+"One of the benefits of a college education," says Emerson, "is to show the
+boy its little avail."
+
+Does this imply that an unlettered mind is desirable? Not necessarily, but
+there is a phase of intellectual culture that is detrimental while it
+lasts.
+
+It is as though one were to choke up a perfectly flowing stream which
+yielded the moisture to fertile lands, by filling the bed of the stream
+with rocks and sticks.
+
+The flow of the spiritual currents becomes clogged by the activities of the
+mind in its acquisition of mere knowledge, and before that knowledge has
+been turned into wisdom. The same truth is expressed in the aphorism "a
+little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It is dangerous because it chains
+the mind to the external things of life, whereas the totally unlettered (we
+do not use the term ignorant here) person will, if he have his heart filled
+with love, perceive the reality of spiritual things that transcend mere
+knowledge of the physical universe.
+
+Beyond this plane of mortal mind-consciousness, which is fitly described as
+"dangerous," there is the wide open area of cosmic _perception_, which may
+lead ultimately to the limitless areas of cosmic consciousness. If,
+therefore, an education, whether acquired in or out of college, so whets
+the grain of the mind that it becomes keen and fine enough to realize that
+knowledge is valuable _ONLY_ as it leads to real wisdom, then indeed it is
+a benefit; unless it does this, it is temporarily an obstruction.
+
+Out of the lower into the higher vibration; out of sense-consciousness into
+cosmic consciousness; out of organization and limitations into freedom--the
+freedom of perfection, is the law and the purpose. This Emerson with his
+clearness of spiritual vision, saw, and this premise he subjected to the
+microscopic lens of his penetrating intellect. In his essay on Fate he
+says:
+
+"Fate involves amelioration. No statement of the Universe can have any
+soundness which does not admit its ascending effort. The direction of the
+whole and of the parts is toward benefit. Behind every individual closes
+organization; before him opens liberty. * * * The Better; the Best. The
+first and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying
+out, or remain for the maturing of higher. In the latest race, in man,
+every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from
+his fellows, are certificates of advance _out of fate into freedom_."
+
+This phrase, "out of fate into freedom," may be read to mean, literally,
+out of the bondage of the sense-conscious life which entails rebirth and
+continued experience, into the light of Illumination which makes us free.
+
+Further commenting, Emerson says:
+
+"Liberation of the will from the sheaths and clogs of organization which he
+has outgrown _is the end and aim of the world_ * * * The whole circle of
+animal life--tooth against tooth, devouring war, war for food, a yelp of
+pain and a grunt of triumph, until at last the whole menagerie, the whole
+chemical mass, is mellowed and refined _for higher use_ * * *"
+
+The sense of unity which is so inseparable from the cosmic conscious
+state, was always uppermost in Emerson's mind. Neither did he ever
+present as unity that state of consciousness that may be termed
+organization-consciousness--group-consciousness it is often called. He
+realized that the person who stands for Individualism is much more than
+apt to recognize his indissoluble relationship with the Cosmos. A
+perception of unity is a complement of Individualism.
+
+That which, in modern metaphysical phraseology, is best termed "The
+Absolute," was expressed by Emerson as the Over-Soul, and this term meant
+something much greater, more unescapable than the anthropomorphic God of
+the church-goers. His assurance of unity with this Divine Spiritual Essence
+was perfect. It savors more of what is termed the religious view of life
+than of the philosophic, but we contend that in the coming era of the
+cosmic conscious man, all life will be religious, in the true sense, and
+that there will be no dividing line between philosophy and worship, because
+worship will consist of living the life of the spiritual man, and not in
+any set forms or rites. Bearing upon this we find Emerson saying:
+
+"Not thanks, not prayer, seem quite the highest or truest name for our
+communion with the infinite--but glad and conspiring reception--reception
+that becomes giving in its turn as the receiver is only the All-Giver in
+part and in infancy. I cannot--nor can any man--speak precisely of things
+so sublime, but it seems to me the wit of man, his strength, his grace, and
+his tendency, his art, is the grace and the presence of God. It is beyond
+explanation. When all is said and done, _the rapt saint is found the only
+logician._ Not exhortation nor argument becomes our lips, but paeans of joy
+and praise. But not of adulation; we are too nearly related in the deep of
+the mind to that we honor. It is God in us that checks the language of
+petition by a grander thought. In the bottom of the heart it is said, 'I am
+and by me, O child, this fair body and world of thine stands and grows; I
+am, all things are mine; and all mine are thine.'"
+
+We could quote passages from the essays ad infinitum, showing conclusively
+that the cosmic conscious plane had been attained and retained by this
+great philosopher--one of the first of the early part of the century, which
+has been prophesied as the beginning of the first faint lights of the Dawn,
+but enough has been offered for our present purpose, that of establishing
+the salient points of the cosmic conscious man or woman, which points are
+the complete assurance of the eternal verity and indestructibility of the
+soul; of its ultimate and inevitable victory over _maya_ or the "wheel of
+causation"; and the joyousness and the sense of at-one-ness with the
+universe, which comes to the illumined one, bespeaking an unquenchable
+optimism and an utter destruction of the sense of sin--points which
+characterize all who have attained to this supra-conscious state of
+Being.
+
+These points are all expressed repeatedly in all Emerson's utterances and
+mark him as one of the most illumined philosophers, as he was one of the
+greatest intellects of the last century, or of any other century.
+
+
+LEO TOLSTOI: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER
+
+A strange, lonely and wonderful figure was Tolstoi, novelist, philosopher,
+socialist, artist and reformer.
+
+Great souls are always lonely souls, estimated by sense-conscious humans.
+In the midst of the so-called pleasures and luxuries of the senses, a wise
+soul appears as barren of comfort as is a desert of foliage.
+
+Without the divine optimism that comes from soul-consciousness, such a one
+could not endure the life of the body: without the absolute assurance that
+comes with cosmic consciousness, men like the late Count Tolstoi must needs
+die of soul-loneliness.
+
+From early childhood up to the time of his Illumination Tolstoi indulged in
+seriousness of thought. Like Mohammed, great and overpowering desire to
+fathom the mystery of death took possession of him. He was ever haunted by
+an excessive dread of the "darkness of the grave," and in his essay,
+"Childhood," he describes with that wonderful realism, which characterizes
+all his works, the effect on a child's mind of seeing the face of his dead
+mother. This may be taken in a sense as biographical, although it is not
+probable that Tolstoi here alludes to the death of his own mother as she
+died when he was too young to have remembered. He describes the scene in
+the words of Irteniev:
+
+"I could not believe that this was her face. I began to look at it more
+closely, and gradually discovered in it the familiar and beloved features.
+I shuddered with fear when I became sure that it was indeed she, but why
+were the closed eyes so fallen in? Why was she so terribly pale, and why
+was there a blackish mark under the clear skin on one cheek?"
+
+A terror of death, and yet a haunting urge that compelled him to be forever
+thinking upon the mystery of it, is the dominant note in every line of
+Tolstoi's writings up to the time which he describes as "a change" that
+came over him.
+
+For example, when Count Leo was in his 33d year, his brother Nicolai died.
+Leo was present at the bedside and described the scene with the utmost
+frankness regarding its effect upon his mind; and again we note that awful
+fear and hopeless questioning which characterizes the sense-conscious man
+whose intellect has been cultivated to the very edge of the line which
+separates the self-conscious life from the cosmic conscious.
+
+This questioning, with the fear and dread and terror of death and of the
+"ceaseless round of births" and the cares and sorrows of existence was
+what drove Prince Siddhartha from his father's court and Mohammed into the
+mountains to meditate and pray until the answer came in the light of
+illumination.
+
+It came to Tolstoi through the very intensity of his powers of reason and
+analysis; through the sword-like quality of mental urge--a much more
+sorrowful path than the one through the simple way of love and service and
+prayer.
+
+His comments upon the death of his brother give us a vivid idea of the
+state of mind of the Tolstoi of that age:
+
+"Never in my life has anything had such an effect upon me. He was right
+(referring to his brother's words) when he said to me there is nothing
+worse than death, and if you remember that death is the inevitable goal of
+all that lives, then it must be confessed that there is nothing poorer than
+life. Why should we be so careful when at the end of all things nothing
+remains of what was once Nicolai Tolstoi? Suddenly he started up and
+murmured in alarm: 'What is this?' He saw that he was passing into
+nothingness."
+
+From the above it will be seen that the Tolstoi of those days was a
+materialist pure and simple. "He saw that he was passing into nothingness,"
+he said of his brother, as though there could be no question as to the
+nothingness of the individual consciousness that he had known as Nicolai,
+his brother.
+
+This soul-harrowing materialism haunted Tolstoi during all the years of his
+youth and early manhood, and threw him constantly into fits of melancholy
+and inner brooding. He could neither dismiss the subject from his mind, nor
+could he bring into the area of his mortal consciousness that serene
+contemplation and optimistic line of reasoning which marks all that Emerson
+wrote.
+
+Tolstoi's morbid horror of decay and death was not in any sense due to a
+lack of physical courage. It was the inevitable repulsion of a strong and
+robust animalism of the body, coupled with a powerful mentality--both of
+which are barriers to the "still small voice" of the soul, through which
+alone comes the conviction of the nothingness of death.
+
+A biographer says of Tolstoi:
+
+"The fit of the fear of death which at the end of the seventies brought him
+to the verge of suicide, was not the first and apparently not the last and
+at any rate not the only one. He felt something like it fifteen years
+before when his brother Nicolai died. Then he fell ill and conjectured the
+presence of the complaint that killed his brother--consumption. He had
+constant pain in his chest and side. He had to go and try to cure himself
+in the Steppe by a course of koumiss, and did actually cure himself.
+Formerly these recurrent attacks of spiritual or physical weakness were
+cured in him, not by any mental or moral upheavals, but simply by his
+vitality, its exuberance and intoxication."
+
+The birth of the new consciousness which came to Tolstoi a few years later,
+was born into existence through these terrible struggles and mental
+agonies, inevitable because of the very nature of his heredity and
+education and environment. Although as we know, he came of gentle-folk,
+there was much of the Russian peasant in Tolstoi's makeup. His organism,
+both as to physical and mental elements, was like a piece of solid iron,
+untempered by the refining processes of an inherent spirituality. His
+never-ceasing struggle for attainment of the degree of cosmic consciousness
+which he finally reached was wholly an intellectual struggle. He possessed
+such a power of analysis, such a depth of intellectual perception, that he
+must needs go on or go mad with the strain of the question unanswered.
+
+To such a mind, the admonition to "never mind about those questions; don't
+think about them," fell upon dull ears. He could no more cease thinking
+upon the mysteries of life and death than he could cease respiration. Nor
+could he blindly trust. He must _know_. Nothing is more unescapable than
+the soul's urge toward freedom--and freedom can be won only by liberation
+from the bondage of illusion.
+
+Tolstoi's friends and biographers agree that along about his forty-fifth
+year, a great moral and religious change took place. The whole trend of his
+thoughts turned from the mortal consciousness to that inner self whence
+issues the higher qualities of mankind.
+
+From a man who, although he was a great writer and a Russian nobleman, was
+yet a man like others of his kind, influenced by traditionary ideas of
+class and outward appearance; a man of conventional habits and ideas;
+Tolstoi emerged a free soul. He shook off the illusion of historical life
+and culture, and stood upon free, moral ground, estimating himself and his
+fellows by means of an insight which ignores the world's conventions and
+despises the world's standards of success. In short, Tolstoi had received
+Illumination and henceforth should he reckoned among those of the new
+birth.
+
+In his own words, written in 1879, this change is described:
+
+"Five years ago a change took place in me. I began to experience at first
+times of mental vacuity, of cessation of life, as if I did not know why I
+was to live or what I was to do. These suspensions of life always found
+expression in the same problem, 'Why am I here?' and then 'What next?' I
+had lived and lived and gone on and on till I had drawn near a precipice; I
+saw clearly that before me there lay nothing but destruction. With all my
+might I endeavored to escape from this life. And suddenly I, a happy man,
+began to hide my bootlaces that I might not hang myself between the
+wardrobes in my room when undressing at night; and ceased to take a gun
+with me out shooting, so as to avoid temptation by these two means of
+freeing myself from this life. * * *
+
+"I lived in this way (that is to say, in communion with the people) for two
+years; and a change took place in me. What befell me was that the life of
+our class--the wealthy and cultured--not only became repulsive to me, but
+lost all significance. All our actions, our judgments, science, and art
+itself, appeared to me in a new light. I realized that it was all
+self-indulgence, and that it was useless to look for any meaning in it. I
+hated myself and acknowledged the truth. Now it had all become clear to
+me."
+
+From this time on, Tolstoi's life was that of one who had entered into
+cosmic consciousness, as we note the effects in others. Desire for solitude
+a taste for the simple, natural things of life, possessed him. The
+primitive peasants and their coarse but wholesome food appealed to him. It
+was not a penance that Tolstoi imposed upon himself, that caused him to
+abandon the life of a country gentleman for that of a hut in the woods.
+The penance would come to such a one from enforced living in the glare of
+the world's artificialities. Cosmic consciousness bestows above all things
+a taste for simplicity; it restores the normal condition of mankind, the
+intimacy with nature and the feeling of kinship with nature-children.
+
+It is not our purpose here to enter into any detailed biography of these
+instances of cosmic consciousness. The point we wish to make is the fact
+that the birth of this new consciousness frequently comes through much
+mental travail and agonies of doubt, speculation and questioning; but that
+it is worth the price paid, however seemingly great, there can be no
+possible distrust.
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC
+
+Balzac should head this chapter, if we were considering these philosophers
+in chronological order, as Balzac was born in 1799, preceding Emerson by a
+matter of four years. But Balzac's peculiar temperament, might almost be
+classed as a religious rather than strictly intellectual example of cosmic
+consciousness. Of the latter phase or expression of this "new" sense, as
+present-day writers frequently call it, Emerson is the most perfect
+example, because he was the most balanced; the most literary, in the
+strict interpretation of the word.
+
+Balzac's place in literature is due far more to his wonderful spiritual
+insight, and his powerful imagination, than to his intellectuality, or to
+literary style. But that he was an almost complete case of cosmic
+consciousness is evident in all he wrote and in all he did. His life was
+absolutely consistent with the cosmic conscious man, living in a world
+where the race consciousness has not yet risen to the heights of the
+spiritually conscious life.
+
+Bucke comments upon his decision against the state of matrimony, because,
+as Balzac himself declared, it would be an obstacle to the perfectibility
+of his interior senses, and to his flight through the spiritual worlds, and
+says: "When we consider the antagonistic attitude of so many of the great
+cases toward this relation (Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Whitman, etc.), there
+seems little doubt that anything like general possession of cosmic
+consciousness must abolish marriage as we know it to-day."
+
+Balzac explains this seeming aversion to the marriage state _as we know it
+to-day_, in his two books, written during his early thirties, namely, Louis
+Lambert and Seraphita. "Louis Lambert" is regarded as in the nature of an
+autobiography, since Balzac, like his mouthpiece, Louis, viewed everything
+from an inner sense--from intuition, or the soul faculties, rather than
+from the standard of mere intellectual observation, analysis and synthesis.
+This inner sense, so real and so thoroughly understandable to those
+possessing it, is almost, if not quite, impossible of description to the
+complete comprehension of those who have no intimate relationship with this
+inner vision. To the person who views life from the inner sense, the soul
+sense (which is the approach to, and is included in, cosmic consciousness),
+the external or physical life is like a mirror reflecting, more or less
+inaccurately, the reality--the soul is the gazer, and the visible life is
+what he sees.
+
+Balzac expresses this view in all he says and does. "All we are is in the
+soul," he says, and the perfection or the imperfection of what we
+externalize, depends upon the development of the soul.
+
+It is this marvelously developed inner vision that makes marriage, on the
+sense-conscious plane, which is the plane upon which we know marriage as it
+is to-day, objectionable to Balzac.
+
+His spirit had already united with its spiritual counterpart, and his soul
+sought the embodiment of that union in the flesh. This he did not find in
+the perfection and completeness which from his inner view he knew to exist.
+
+Barriers of caste, or class; of time and space; of age; of race and color;
+of condition; may intervene between counterparts on the physical plane;
+nay, one may be manifesting in the physical body and the other have
+abandoned the body, but as there is neither time nor space nor condition to
+the spirit, this union may have been sought and found, and _reflected to_
+the mortal consciousness, in which case marriage with anything less than
+the _one_ true counterpart would be unsatisfactory, if not altogether
+objectionable.
+
+With this view in mind, Seraphita becomes as lucid a bit of reading as
+anything to be found in literature.
+
+Seraphita is the perfected being--the god into which man is developing, or
+more properly speaking, _unfolding_, since man must unfold into that from
+which he started, but with consciousness added.
+
+Everywhere, in ancient and modern mysticism, we find the assumption that
+God is dual--male and female. The old Hebrew word for God is
+plural--Elohim.
+
+Humankind invariably and persistently, even though half-mockingly, alludes
+to man and wife as "one"; and men and women speak of each other, when
+married, as "my other half."
+
+That which persists has a basis in fact, and symbolizes the perfect type.
+What we know of marriage as it is to-day, proves to us beyond the shadow of
+a doubt, that the man-made institution of marriage does not make man and
+woman one, nor insure that two halves of the same whole are united. The
+highest type of men and women to-day are at best but half-gods, but these
+are prophecies of the future race, "the man-god whom we await" as Emerson
+puts it. But that which we await is the man-woman-god, the Perfected Being,
+of whom Balzac writes in Seraphita.
+
+It has been said that Madame Hanska, whom the author finally married only
+six months previous to his death, was the original of Seraphita, but it
+would seem that this great affection, tender and enduring as it was,
+partook far more of a beautiful friendship between two souls who knew and
+understood each other's needs, than it did of that blissful and ecstatic
+union of counterparts, which everywhere is described by those who have
+experienced it, as a sensation of _melting or merging into_ the other's
+being.
+
+Seraphita is the embodiment, in human form, of the _idea_ expressed in the
+world-old belief in a perfected being; whose perfection was complete when
+the two halves of the _one_ should have found each other.
+
+The inference is very generally made that Balzac believed in and sought to
+express the idea of a bi-sexual individual--a _personality_ who is complete
+in himself or herself _as a person_; one in which the intuitive, feminine
+principle and the reasoning, masculine principle had become perfectly
+balanced--in short, an androgynous human.
+
+This idea is apparently further substantiated by the fact that Seraphita
+was loved by Minna, a beautiful young girl to whom Seraphita was always
+Seraphitus, an ideal lover; and by Wilfrid, to whom Seraphita represented
+his ideal of feminine loveliness, both in mind and body; a young girl
+possessing marvelous, almost miraculous, wisdom, but yet a woman with
+human passions and human virtues--his ideal of wifehood and motherhood.
+
+But whatever the idea that Balzac intended to convey, whether, as is
+generally believed, Seraphita was an androgynous being, or whether she
+symbolized the perfection of soul-union, our contention is that this union
+is not a creation of the imagination, but the accomplishment of the plan of
+creation--the final goal of earthly pilgrimage; the raison d'etre of love
+itself.
+
+One argument against the idea that Seraphita was intended to illustrate an
+androgynous being, rather than a perfected human, who had her spiritual
+mate, is found in the words in which she refused to marry Wilfrid, although
+Balzac makes it plainly evident that she was attracted to Wilfrid with a
+degree of sense-attraction, due to the fact that she was still living
+within the environment of the physical, and therefore subject to the
+illusions of the mortal, even while her spiritual consciousness was so
+fully developed as to enable her to perceive and realize the difference
+between an attraction that was based largely upon sense, and that which was
+of the soul.
+
+Wilfrid says to her:
+
+"Have you no soul that you are not seduced by the prospect of consoling a
+great man, who will sacrifice all to live with you in a little house by the
+border of a lake?"
+
+"But," answers Seraphita, "I am loved with a love without bounds."
+
+And when Wilfrid with insane anger and jealousy asked who it was whom
+Seraphita loved and who loved her, she answered "God."
+
+At another time, when Minna, to whom she had often spoken in veiled terms
+of a mysterious being who loved her and whom she loved, asked her who this
+person was, she answered:
+
+"I can love nothing here on earth."
+
+"What dost thou love then?" asked Minna.
+
+"Heaven" was the reply.
+
+This obscurity and uncertainty as to what manner of love it was that
+absorbed Seraphita, and who was the object of it, could not have been
+possible had it been the usual devotion of the _religeuse_.
+
+Seraphita, whose consciousness extended far beyond that of the people about
+her, could not have explained to her friends that the invisible realms were
+as real to her as the visible universe was to those with only
+sense-consciousness. It was impossible to explain to them that she had
+found and knew her mate, even though she had not met him in the physical
+body.
+
+To Wilfrid she said she loved "God." To Minna she used the term "Heaven,"
+and when Minna questioned: "But art thou worthy of heaven when thou
+despisest the creatures of God?" Seraphita answered:
+
+"Couldst thou love two beings at once? Would a lover be a lover if he did
+not fill the heart? Should he not be the first, the last, the only one? She
+who loves will she not quit the world for her lover? Her entire family
+becomes a memory; she has no longer a relative. The lover! she has given
+him her whole soul. If she has kept a fraction of it, she does not love. To
+love feebly, is that to love? The word of the lover makes all her joy, and
+quivers in her veins like a purple deeper than blood; his glance is a light
+which penetrates her; she dissolves in him; there, where he is, all is
+beautiful; he is warmth to the soul: he irradiates everything; near him
+could one know cold or night? He is never absent; he is ever within us; we
+think in him, to him, for him. Minna, that is the-way I love."
+
+And when Minna, like Wilfrid, "seized by a devouring jealousy," demanded to
+know "whom?" Seraphita answered, "God." This she did because the one whom
+she loved became her God. We are told that "love makes gods of men."
+Perfect love, the love of those who are spiritual-mates--soul-mates--the
+"man-woman-god whom we await," becomes an immortal: and immortals are gods.
+
+Moreover if Seraphita had intended to teach the love of the religious
+devotee to The Absolute instead of a perfected sex-love, she would not have
+pointed out to both Wilfrid and Minna that which she, in her superior
+vision, her supra-consciousness, perceived, namely, that Wilfrid and Minna
+were really intended for spiritual mates, and that what they each saw in
+her was really a prophecy of their own perfected and spiritualized love.
+
+The subject is one that is positively incomprehensible and unexplainable to
+the average mind. All mystic literature, when read with the eyes of
+understanding, exalts and spiritualizes sex. The latter day degeneration of
+sex is the "trail of the serpent," which Woman is to crush with her heel.
+And Woman is crushing it to-day, although to the superficial observer, who
+sees only surface conditions, it would appear as though Woman had fallen
+from her high estate, to take her place on a footing with man. This view is
+the exoteric, and not the esoteric, one.
+
+They who have ears hear the inner voice, and they who have eyes see with
+the inner sight. The mystery of sex is the eternal mystery which each must
+solve for himself before he can comprehend it, and when solved eliminates
+all sense of sin and shame; brings Illumination in which everything is made
+clear and makes man-woman immortal--_a_ god.
+
+Swedenborg's theory of Heaven as a never-ending honeymoon in which
+spiritually-mated humans dwell, has been denounced by many as "shocking" to
+a refined and sensitive mind. But this idea is shocking only because even
+the most advanced minds are seldom Illumined, their advancement being along
+the lines of intellectual research and _acquired knowledge_, which, as we
+have previously explained, is not synonymous with _interior wisdom_.
+
+The illumined mind is bound to find in the eternal and ever-present fact of
+sex, the key to the mysteries--the password to immortal godhood.
+
+The subject is one that cannot be set forth in printed words; this fact is,
+indeed, the very Plan of Illumination. It cannot be _taught_. It must be
+_found_. Only those who have glimpsed its truth can even imperfectly point
+the way in which it _may_ be discovered. No teacher can guarantee it. It is
+the most evanescent, the most delicate, the most indescribable thing in the
+Cosmos. It is therefore the most readily misinterpreted and misunderstood.
+
+Balzac doubtless understood, not as a matter of perception of a truth but
+as an experience, and this fact, if no other, marks him as one having a
+very high degree of cosmic consciousness.
+
+Seraphita called herself a "Specialist." When Minna inquired how it was
+that Seraphitus could read the souls of men, the answer was:
+
+"I have the gift of Specialism. Specialism is an inward sight that can
+penetrate all things; you will understand its full meaning only through
+comparison. In the great cities of Europe works are produced by which the
+human hand seeks to represent the effects of the moral nature as well as
+those of the physical nature, as well as those of the ideas in marble. The
+sculptor acts on the stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into
+it. There are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of
+representing the whole noble side of humanity, or the evil side of it; most
+men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few older men, a
+little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the thoughts
+expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of art are of the
+same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work the whole universe of
+thought. Such persons are in themselves the principles of art; they bear
+within them a mirror which reflects nature in her slightest manifestations.
+Well, so it is with me; I have within me a mirror before which the moral
+nature, with its causes and its effects, appears and is reflected. Entering
+thus into the consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future
+and the past * * * though what I have said does not define the gift of
+Specialism, for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it."
+
+This describes in terms similar to those employed by others who possess
+cosmic consciousness, the results of this inner light, which Seraphita
+calls a "mirror."
+
+And yet, with this seemingly exhaustive and lucid exposition of the effects
+of Illumination, Seraphita declares that "to conceive the nature of this
+gift we must possess it."
+
+Balzac further comments upon what he terms this gift of Specialism, which
+is cosmic consciousness or illumination, thus:
+
+"The specialist is necessarily the loftiest expression of man--the link
+which connects the visible to the superior worlds. He acts, he sees, he
+feels through his _inner being_. The abstractive _thinks_. The instinctive
+simply _acts_. Hence three degrees for man. As an instinctive he is below
+the level; as an abstractive he attains it; as a specialist he rises above
+it. Specialism opens to man his true career; the Infinite dawns upon
+him--he catches a glimpse of his destiny."
+
+The merely sense-conscious man is the man-animal; the abstractive man is
+the average man and woman in the world to-day--the human who is evolving
+out of the mental into the spiritual consciousness. The specialist is the
+cosmic conscious one, the one who "catches a glimpse of his destiny."
+
+Balzac, in company with all who attain cosmic consciousness, had a great
+capacity for suffering; and this soul-loneliness became crystalized into
+spiritual wisdom, which he expressed in the words and in the manner most
+likely to be accepted by the world.
+
+How else can that divine union to which we are heirs and for which we are
+either blindly, consciously, or supra-consciously, striving, be described
+and exploited without danger of defilement and degeneracy, save and except
+by the phrase "unity with God"?
+
+All mystics have found it necessary to veil the "secret of secrets," lest
+the unworthy (because _unready_) defile it with his gaze, even as the
+sinful devotee prostrates himself hiding his face, while the priest raises
+the chalice containing the holy eucharist in the ceremony of the mass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT
+
+
+Poetry is the natural language of cosmic consciousness. "The music of the
+spheres" is a literal expression, as all who have ever _glimpsed_ the
+beauties of the spiritual realms will testify.
+
+"Poets are the trumpets which sing to battle. Poets are the unacknowledged
+legislators of the world," said Shelley.
+
+Not that all poets are aware, in their mortal consciousness, of their
+divine mission, or of their spiritual glimpses.
+
+The outer mind, the mortal or carnal mind--that part of our organism whose
+office it is to take care of the physical body, for its preservation and
+its well-being, may be so dominant as, to hold in bondage the _atman_, but
+it can not utterly silence its voice.
+
+Thus the true poet is also a seer; a prophet; a spiritually-conscious
+being, for such time, or during such phases of inspiration, as he becomes
+imbued with the spirit of poetry.
+
+A person who writes rhymes is not necessarily a poet. So, too, there are
+poets who do not express their inspirations according to the rules of metre
+and syntax.
+
+Between that which Balzac tabulated as the "abstractive" type of human
+evolvement and that which is fully cosmic in consciousness, there are many
+and diverse degrees of the higher faculties; but the poet always expresses
+some one of these degrees of the higher consciousness; indeed some poets
+are of that versatile nature that they run the entire gamut of the
+emotional nature, now descending to the ordinary normal consciousness which
+takes account only of the personal self; again ascending to the heights of
+the impersonal fearlessness and unassailable confidence that is the
+heritage of those who have reached the full stature of the "man-god whom we
+await"--the cosmic conscious race that is to be.
+
+All commentators upon modern instances of Illumination unite in regarding
+Walt Whitman as one of the most, if not _the most_, perfect example of whom
+we have any record of cosmic consciousness and its sublime effects upon the
+character and personality of the illumined one.
+
+Whitman is a sublime type for reasons which are of first importance in
+their relation to character as viewed from the ideals of the cosmic
+conscious race-to-be.
+
+Moralists have criticized Whitman as immoral; religionists have deplored
+his lack of a religious creed; literary critics have denied his claim to
+high rank in the world of literature; but Walt Whitman is unquestionably
+without a peer in the roundness of his genius; in the simplicity of his
+soul; in the catholicity of his sympathy; in the perfect poise and
+self-control and imperturbability of his kindness. His biographers agree as
+to his never-failing good nature. He was without any of those fits of
+unrest and temperamental eccentricities which are supposed to be the "sign
+manual" of the child of the poetic muse.
+
+In Whitman it would seem that all those petty prejudices against any
+nationality or class of men, were entirely absent. He exalted the
+common-place, not as a pose, nor because he had given himself to that task,
+but because to him there was no common-place. In the cosmic perception of
+the universe, everything is exalted to the plane of _fitness_. As to the
+pure all things are pure, so to the one who is steeped in the sublimity
+of Divine Illumination, there is no high or low, no good or bad, no white
+or black, or rich or poor; all--all is a part of the plan, and, in its
+place in cosmic evolution, it _fits_.
+
+Whitman cries:
+
+"All! all! Let others ignore what they may, I make the poem of evil also, I
+commemorate that part also; I am myself just as much evil as good, and my
+nation is, and I say there, is in fact no evil."
+
+Compared to the religious aspect of cosmic consciousness in which, previous
+to the time of Illumination, the devotee had striven to rise to spiritual
+heights through disdaining the flesh, this note of Whitman's is a new
+note--the nothingness of evil as such; the righteousness of the flesh and
+the holiness of earthly, or human, love, bespeaks the prophet of the New
+Dispensation; the time hinted of by Jesus, the Master, when he said, "when
+the twain shall be one and the outside as the inside," as a sign and symbol
+of the blessed time to come when the kingdom he spoke of (not his personal
+kingdom, but the kingdom which he represented, the kingdom of Love), should
+come upon earth.
+
+Whitman's illumination is essentially poetic; not that it is not also
+intellectual and moral; but after his experience--at least an experience
+more notable than any hitherto recorded by him, in or about his
+thirty-fifth year--we find his conversation invariably reflecting the
+beauty and poetical imagery of his mind. He may be said to have lived and
+moved and had his being in a state of blissful unconsciousness of anything
+unclean or impure, or unnatural.
+
+This absence of _consciousness of evil_ is in no wise synonymous with a
+type of person who _exalts_ his undeveloped animal tendencies under the
+guise of liberation from a sense of sin. Neither is this discrimination
+easy of attainment to any but those who _realize_ in their own hearts the
+very distinct difference between the nothingness of sin and the pretended
+acceptance of perversions as purity.
+
+While we are on this point we must again emphasize the truth that cosmic
+consciousness cannot be gained by prescription; there is no royal road to
+_mukti_. Liberation from the lower _manas_ can not be bought or sold, it
+can not be explained or comprehended, save by those to whom the attainment
+of such a state is at least _possible_ if not _probable_.
+
+Illustrative of his sense of unity with all life (one of the most salient
+characteristics of the fully cosmic conscious man), are these lines of
+Whitman's:
+
+  "Voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure;
+  Hurrying with the modern crowd, as eager and fickle as any;
+  Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him;
+  Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long
+      while;
+  Walking the hills of Judea, with the beautiful gentle God by my side;
+  Speeding through space--speeding through Heaven and the stars."
+
+Oriental mysticism tells us that one of the attributes of the liberated one
+is the power to read the hearts and souls of all men; to feel what they
+feel; and to so unite with them in consciousness that we _are_ for the time
+being the very person or thing we contemplate. If this be indeed the test
+of godhood, Whitman expresses it in every line:
+
+  "The disdain and calmness of olden martyrs;
+  The mother condemned for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children
+      gazing on;
+  The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing,
+      covered with sweat;
+  The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck--the murderous
+      buckshot and the bullets;
+  All these I feel, or am."
+
+Seeking to express the sense of knowing and especially of _feeling_, and
+the bigness and broadness of life, the scorn of petty aims and strife; in
+short, that interior perception which Illumination brings, he says:
+
+  "Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? have you reckoned the earth
+      much?
+  Have you practised so long to learn to read?
+  Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
+  Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all
+      poems;
+  You shall possess the good of the earth and sun--there are millions of
+      suns left;
+  You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
+      the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books;
+  You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me;
+  You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.
+  I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and
+      the end;
+  But I do not talk of the beginning nor the end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "There was never any more inception than there is now;
+  Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
+  And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
+  Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."
+
+A perception of eternity as an ever-present reality is one of the
+characteristic signs of the inception of the new birth.
+
+Birth and death become nothing more nor yet less, than events in the
+procedure of eternal life; age becomes merely a graduation garment; God
+and heaven are not separated from us by any reality; they become every-day
+facts.
+
+Whitman tells of the annihilation of any sense of separateness from his
+soul side, in the following words:
+
+  "Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my
+      soul."
+
+He did not confound his mortal consciousness, the lower _manas_, with the
+higher--the soul; neither did he recognize an impassable gulf between them.
+
+While admittedly ascending to the higher consciousness from the lower,
+Whitman refused to follow the example of the saints and sages of old, and
+mortify or despise the lower self--the manifestation. He had indeed _struck
+the balance_; he recognized his dual nature, each in its rightful place and
+with its rightful possessions, and refused to abase either "I am" to the
+other. He literally "rendered unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," by
+claiming for the flesh the purity and the cleanliness of God's handiwork.
+
+In Whitman, too, we find an almost perfect realization of immortality and
+of blissfulness of life and the complete harmony and unity of his soul with
+_all there is_. Following closely upon the experience that seems to have
+been the most vivid of the many instances of illumination which he enjoyed
+throughout a long life, he wrote the following lines, indicative of the
+emotions immediately associated with the influx of illumination:
+
+  "Swiftly arose and spread around me, the peace and joy and knowledge that
+      pass all the art and argument of earth;
+  And I know that the hand of God is the elder hand of my own,
+  And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
+  And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my
+      sisters and lovers,
+  And that a kelson of creation is love."
+
+In lines written in 1860, about seven years after the first vivid instance
+of the experience of illumination which afterward became oft-recurrent,
+Whitman speaks of what he calls "Perfections," and from what he writes we
+may assume that he referred to those possessing cosmic consciousness, and
+the practical impossibility of describing this peculiarity and accounting
+for the alteration it makes in character and outlook.
+
+Says Whitman:
+
+  "Only themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves,
+  As souls only understand souls."
+
+It has been pointed out that Whitman more perfectly illustrates the type of
+the coming man--the cosmic conscious race, because Whitman's illumination
+seems to have come without the terrible agonies of doubt and prayer and
+mortification of the flesh, which characterize so many of those saints and
+sages of whom we read in sacred literature. But it must not be inferred
+from this that Whitman's life was devoid of suffering.
+
+A biographer says of him:
+
+"He has loved the earth, sun, animals; despised riches, given alms to every
+one that asked; stood up for the stupid and crazy; devoted his income and
+labor to others; according to the command of the divine voice; and was
+impelled by the divine impulse; and now for reward he is poor, despised,
+sick, paralyzed, neglected, dying. His message to men, to the delivery of
+which he devoted his life, which has been dearer in his eyes (for man's
+sake) than wife, children, life itself, is unread, or scoffed and jeered
+at. What shall he say to God? He says that God knows him through and
+through, and that he is willing to leave himself in God's hands."
+
+But above and beyond all this, is the sense of oneness with all who suffer
+which is ever a heritage of the cosmic conscious one, even while he is, at
+the same time, the recipient of states of bliss and certainty of
+immortality, and melting soul-love, incomprehensible and indescribable to
+the non-initiate. Whitman's calm and poise was not that of the
+ice-encrusted egotist. It is the poise of the perfectly balanced man-god
+equally aware of his human and his divine attributes; and justly estimating
+both; nor drawing too fine a line between.
+
+  "I embody all presence outlawed or suffering;
+  See myself in prison, shaped like another man,
+  And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch;
+  It is I left out in the morning, and barr'd at night.
+  Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to jail, but I am handcuffed and walk by
+      his side;
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too, and am tried and
+      sentenced.
+  Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last
+      gasp;
+  My face is ash-colored--my sinews gnarl--away from me people retreat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them;
+  I project my hat, sit shame-faced and beg."
+
+If any one imagines that Whitman was not a religious man, let him read the
+following:
+
+  "I say that no man has ever yet been half devout enough;
+  None has ever yet adored or worshipped half enough;
+  None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the
+      future is."
+
+There is a sublime confidence and worship in these words which belittles
+the churchman's hope and prayer that God may be good to him and bless him
+with a future life. Whitman's philosophy, less specific as to method, is
+assuredly more certain, more faithful in effect. Whitman had the experience
+of being immersed in a sea of light and love, so frequently a phenomenon
+of Illumination; he retained throughout all his life a complete and perfect
+assurance of immortality.
+
+His sense of union with and relationship to all living things was as much a
+part of him as the color of his eyes and hair; he did not have to remind
+himself of it, as a religious duty.
+
+He experienced a keen joy in nature and in the innocent, childlike
+pleasures of everyday things, and at the same time possessed a splendid
+intellect.
+
+All consciousness of sin or evil had been erased from his mind and actually
+had no place in his life.
+
+
+ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
+
+In the case of Lord Tennyson, we have a definite recognition of two
+distinct states of consciousness, finally culminating in a clear experience
+of cosmic consciousness; this experience was so positive as to leave no
+doubt or indecision in his mind regarding the reality of the spiritual, and
+the illusory character of the external life.
+
+In truth Tennyson had so fixed his consciousness in the spiritual rather
+than in the external, that he looked out from that inner self, as through
+the windows of a house; he was prepared, as he said, to believe that his
+body was but an imaginary symbol of himself, but nothing and no one could
+persuade him that the real Tennyson, the _I am_ consciousness of being
+which was he, was other than spiritual, eternal, undying.
+
+Like so many others, notably Whitman, who have realized a more or less full
+degree of cosmic consciousness, Tennyson was deeply and reverently
+religious, although not partisanly connected with church work. Tennyson's
+early boyhood was marked by experiences which usually befall persons of the
+psychic temperament. As he himself described these states of consciousness,
+they were moments in which the ego transcended the limits of self
+consciousness and entered the limitless realm of spirit.
+
+They do not tabulate with the ordinary trance condition of the
+spiritualistic medium, who subjects his own self consciousness to a
+"control," although Tennyson always believed that the best of his writings
+were inspired by, and written under "the direct influence of higher
+intelligences, of whose presence he was distinctly conscious. He felt them
+near him and his mind was impressed by their ideas."
+
+The point which we emphasize is that these peculiar states of consciousness
+are not synonymous with the western idea of trance as seen in mediumship,
+although Tennyson uses the term "trance" in describing them.
+
+He says:
+
+"A kind of walking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood,
+when I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating
+my own name to myself silently until all at once, as it were, out of the
+intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself
+seemed to dissolve and fade into boundless being."
+
+It is a fact that children of a peculiarly sensitive or psychic temperament
+seem to have strange ideas regarding the name by which they are called, and
+not infrequently become confused and filled with an inexplicable wonderment
+at the sound of their own name. This phenomenon is much less rare than is
+generally known.
+
+In Tennyson's "Ancient Sage" this experience of entering into cosmic
+consciousness is thus described:
+
+  "More than once when I
+  Sat all alone, revolving in myself,
+  The word that is the symbol of myself,
+  The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
+  And passed into the nameless, as a cloud
+  Melts into heaven. I touched my limbs; the limbs
+  Were strange, not mine; and yet no shade of doubt,
+  But utter clearness, and thro' loss of self
+  The gain of such large life as matched with ours
+  Were sun to spark--unshadowable in words.
+  Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."
+
+Tennyson's illumination is certain, clearly defined, distinct and
+characteristic, although his poems are much less cosmic than those of
+Whitman and of many others. There is, however, in the above, all that is
+descriptive of that state of consciousness which accompanies liberation
+from the illusion--the _enchantment_ of the merely mortal existence.
+
+Words are, as Tennyson fitly says, but "shadows of a shadow-world"; how
+then may we hope to define in terms comprehensible to sense-consciousness
+only, emotions and experiences which involve loss of _self_, and at the
+same time gain of the _Self_?
+
+Tennyson's frequent excursions into the realm of spiritual consciousness
+while still a child, bears out our contention that many children not
+infrequently have this experience, and either through reserve or from lack
+of ability to explain it, keep the matter to themselves; generally losing
+or "outgrowing" the tendency as they enter the activities of school life,
+and the mortal mind becomes dominant in them. This is especially true of
+the rising generation, and we personally know several clearly defined
+instances which have been reported to us, during conversations upon the
+theme of cosmic consciousness.
+
+
+YONE NOGUCHI
+
+Any one who has ever had the good fortune to read a little book of verse
+entitled "From the Eastern Seas," by Yone Noguchi, a young Japanese, will
+at once pronounce them a beautiful and perhaps perfect example of verse
+that may be correctly labeled "cosmic."
+
+Noguchi was under nineteen years of age when he penned these verses, but
+they are thoughts and expressions possible only to one who lives the
+greater part of his life within the illumination of the cosmic sense. They
+are so delicate as to have little, if any, of the mortal in them.
+
+It is also significant that Noguchi in these later years (he is now only a
+little past thirty), does not reproduce this cosmic atmosphere in his
+writings to such an extent, due no doubt to the fact that his daily
+occupation (that of Professor of Languages in the Imperial College of
+Tokio), compels his outer attention, excluding the fullness of the inner
+vision.
+
+The following lines, are perfect as an exposition of spiritual
+consciousness in which the lesser self has become submerged:
+
+  "Underneath the shade of the trees, myself passed into somewhere as a
+      cloud.
+  I see my soul floating upon the face of the deep, nay the faceless face
+      of the deepless deep--
+  Ah, the seas of loneliness.
+  The silence-waving waters, ever shoreless, bottomless, colorless, have no
+      shadow of my passing soul.
+  I, without wisdom, without foolishness, without goodness, without
+      badness--am like God, a negative god at least."
+
+The almost perpetual state of spiritual consciousness in which the young
+poet lived at this time is apparent in the following lines:
+
+  "When I am lost in the deep body of the mist on a hill,
+  The universe seems built with me as its pillar.
+  Am I the god upon the face of the deep, nay--
+  The deepless deepness in the beginning?"
+
+And the following, possible of comprehension only to one who has glimpsed
+the eternal verity of man's spiritual reality, and the shadow-like quality
+of the external; could have been written only by one freed from the bonds
+of illusion:
+
+  "The mystic silence of the moon,
+  Gradually revived in me immortality;
+  The sorrow that gently stirred
+  Was melancholy-sweet; sorrow is higher
+  Far than joy, the sweetest sorrow is supreme
+  Amid all the passions. I had
+  No sorrow of mortal heart: my sorrow
+  Was one given before the human sorrows
+  Were given me. Mortal speech died
+  From me: my speech was one spoken before
+  God bestowed on me human speech.
+  There is nothing like the moon-night
+  When I, parted from the voice of the city,
+  Drink deep of Infinity with peace
+  From another, a stranger sphere. There is nothing
+  Like the moon-night when the rich, noble stars
+  And maiden roses interchange their long looks of love.
+  When I raise my face from the land of loss
+  Unto the golden air, and calmly learn
+  How perfect it is to grow still as a star.
+  There is nothing like the moon-night
+  When I walk upon the freshest dews,
+  And amid the warmest breezes,
+  With all the thought of God
+  And all the bliss of man, as Adam
+  Not yet driven from Eden, and to whom
+  Eve was not yet born. What a bird
+  Dreams in the moonlight is my dream:
+  What a rose sings is my song."
+
+The true poet does not need individual experiences of either sorrow or of
+joy. His spirit is so attuned to the song of the universe; so sympathetic
+with the moans of earthly trials, that every vibration from the heart of
+the universe reaches him; stabs him with its sorrow, or irradiates his
+being with joy.
+
+Jesus is fitly portrayed to us as "The Man of Sorrows"; even while we
+recognize him as a self-conscious son of God--an immortal being fully aware
+of his escape from enchantment, and his heirship to Paradise.
+
+Cosmic consciousness bestows a bliss that is past all words to describe and
+it also quickens the sympathies and attunes the soul to the vibrations of
+the heart-cries of the struggling evolving ones who are still travailing in
+the pains of the new birth. We must be willing to endure the suffering _in
+order that we may realize_ the joy; not because joy is the reward for
+suffering, but because it is only by losing sight of the personal self that
+we become aware of that inner Self which is immortal and blissful; and when
+we become aware of the reality of that inner Self, we know that we are
+united with _the all_, and must feel with all.
+
+It would be impossible in one volume to enumerate all the poets who have
+given evidence of supra-consciousness. As has been previously pointed out,
+all true poets are at least temporarily aware of their dual nature--rather,
+one should say, the dual phases of their consciousness. Many, perhaps, do
+not function beyond the higher planes of the psychic vibrations, but even
+these are aware of the reality of the soul, and the illusion of the
+sense-conscious, mortal life.
+
+Dante; the Brownings; Shelley; Swinbourne; Goethe; Milton; Keats; Rosetti;
+Shakespeare; Pope; Lowell--where should we stop, did we essay to draw a
+line?
+
+
+WORDSWORTH
+
+Wordsworth, the poet of Nature has given us in his own words, so clearly
+cut an outline of his Illumination, that we can not resist recording here
+the salient points which mark his experience as that of cosmic
+consciousness, transcending the more frequent phenomenon of
+soul-consciousness and its psychic functions.
+
+Wordsworth's Ode to immortality epitomizes the lesson of the Yoga
+sutras--out of The Absolute we come, and return to immortal bliss with
+consciousness added. Wordsworth also affords an excellent example of our
+contention that cosmic consciousness does not come to us at any specific
+age or time. Wordsworth distinctly says that as a child he possessed this
+faculty, as for example his oft-repeated words, both in conversation and in
+his biography:
+
+"Nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of
+death, as a state applicable to my own being. It was not so much from
+feelings of animal vivacity that my difficulty came, as from a sense of the
+indomitableness of the spirit within me. I used to brood over the stories
+of Enoch and Elijah, and almost to persuade myself that, whatever might
+become of others, I should be translated, in something of the same way, to
+heaven. With a feeling congenial to this, I was often unable to think of
+external things as having external existence, and I communed with all that
+I saw as something not apart from, but inherent in, my own immaterial
+nature. Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree,
+to recall myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality."
+
+In later life, Wordsworth lost the realization of this supra-consciousness,
+in what a commentator calls a "fever of rationalism"; but the power of that
+wonderful spiritual vision, pronounced in his youth, could not be utterly
+lost and soon after he reached his thirtieth year, he again becomes the
+spiritual poet, fully conscious of his higher nature--the cosmic conscious
+self.
+
+
+WILLIAM SHARP--"FIONA MACLEOD"
+
+A pronounced instance of the two phases of consciousness, is that of the
+late William Sharp, one of the best known writers of the modern English
+school.
+
+It was not until after the death of William Sharp, that the secret of this
+dual personality was given to the public, although a few of his most
+intimates had known it for several years. In the "Memoirs" compiled by
+Elizabeth Sharp, wife of the writer, we find the following:
+
+"The life of William Sharp divides itself naturally into two halves: the
+first ends with the publication by William Sharp of 'Vistas,' and the
+second begins with 'Pharais,' the first book signed _Fiona Macleod_."
+
+In these memoirs, the point is made obvious that _Fiona Macleod_ is not
+merely a _nom de plume_; neither is she an obsessing personality; a guide
+or "control," as the Spiritualists know that phenomenon. _Fiona Macleod_,
+always referred to by William Sharp as "she," is his own higher Self--the
+cosmic consciousness of the spiritual man which was so nearly balanced in
+the personality of William Sharp as to _appear_ to the casual observer as
+another person.
+
+It is said that the identity of _Fiona Macleod_, as expressed in the
+manuscript put out under that name, was seldom suspected to be that of
+William Sharp, so different was the style and the tone of the work of these
+two phases of the same personality.
+
+In this connection it may be well to quote his wife's opinion regarding the
+two phases of personality, answering the belief of Yeats the Irish poet
+that he believed William Sharp to be the most extraordinary psychic he
+ever encountered and saying that _Fiona Macleod_ was evidently a distinct
+personality. In the Memoirs, Mrs. Sharp comments upon this and says:
+
+"It is true, as I have said, that William Sharp seemed a different person
+when the Fiona mood was on him; but that he had no recollection of what he
+said in that mood was not the case--the psychic visionary power belonged
+exclusively to neither; it influenced both and was dictated by laws he did
+not understand."
+
+Mrs. Sharp refers to William Sharp and Fiona, as two persons, saying that
+"it influenced both," but both sides of his personality rather than both
+personalities, is what she claims. In further explanation she writes:
+
+"I remember from early days how he would speak of the momentary curious
+'dazzle in the brain,' which preceded the falling away of all material
+things and precluded some inner vision of great beauty, or great presences,
+or some symbolic import--that would pass as rapidly as it came. I have been
+beside him when he has been in trance and I have felt the room throb with
+heightened vibration."
+
+One of the "dream-visions" which William Sharp experienced shortly before
+his last illness, is headed "Elemental Symbolism," and was recorded by him
+in these beautiful words:
+
+"I saw Self, or Life, symbolized all about me as a limitless, fathomless
+and lonely sea. I took a handful and threw it into the grey silence of
+ocean air, and it returned at once as a swift and potent flame, a red fire
+crested with brown sunrise, rushing from between the lips of sky and sea to
+the sound as of innumerable trumpets."
+
+"In another dream he visited a land where there was no more war, where all
+men and women were equal; where humans, birds and beasts were no longer at
+enmity, or preyed on one another. And he was told that the young men of the
+land had to serve two years as missionaries to those who lived at the
+uttermost boundaries. 'To what end?' he asked. 'To cast out fear, our last
+enemy.' In the house of his host he was struck by the beauty of a framed
+painting that seemed to vibrate with rich colors. 'Who painted that?' he
+asked. His host smiled, 'We have long since ceased to use brushes and
+paints. That is a thought projected from the artist's brain, and its
+duration will be proportionate with its truth.'"
+
+In explanation of why he chose to put out so much of the creative work of
+his brain under the signature of a woman, and how he happened to use the
+name _Fiona Macleod_, Sharp explained that when he began to realize how
+strong was the feminine element in the book _Pharais_, he decided to issue
+the book under a woman's name and _Fiona Macleod_ "flashed ready-made" into
+his mind. "My truest self, the self who is below all other selves must find
+expression," he explained. The Self that is _above_ the other self is what
+he should have said. The following extracts are from the _Fiona Macleod_
+phase of William Sharp and are characteristic of the Self, as evidenced in
+all instances of Illumination, particularly as these expressions refer to
+the nothingness of death, and the beauty and power of Love. "Do not speak
+of the spiritual life as 'another life'; there is no 'other life'; what we
+mean by that, is with us now. The great misconception of death is that it
+is the only door to another world." This testimony corroborates that of
+Whitman as well as of St. Paul, notwithstanding all the centuries that
+separate the two. St. Paul did not say that man _will have_ a spiritual
+body, but that he _has_ a spiritual body as well as a corporeal body.
+
+After the experience of his illumination, William Sharp, writing as _Fiona
+Macleod_ constantly testified to the ever-present reality of his spiritual
+life; a life far more real to him than the sense-conscious life although he
+alluded to it as his dream. In one place he says:
+
+"Now truly, is dreamland no longer a phantasy of sleep, but a loveliness so
+great that, like deep music, there could be no words wherewith to measure
+it, but only the breathless unspoken speech of the soul upon whom has
+fallen the secret dews."
+
+Of the impossibility of adequately explaining the mystery of Illumination
+and the sensations it inspires, he says, speaking through the Self of
+_Fiona Macleod_: "I write, not because I know a mystery, and would reveal
+it, but because I have known a mystery and am to-day as a child before it,
+and can neither reveal nor interpret it."
+
+This is comparable with Whitman's "when I try to describe the best, I can
+not. My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots."
+
+Another sentence from _Fiona_:
+
+"There is a great serenity in the thought of death, when it is known to be
+the gate of Life."
+
+Like all who have gained the Great Blessing, the revelation to the mind of
+that higher Self, that _we are_, William Sharp suffered keenly. The despair
+of the world was his, co-equal with the Joy of the Spirit. Indeed, his is
+at once the gift and the burden of the Illuminati.
+
+Mrs. Mona Caird said of him: "He was almost encumbered by the infinity of
+his perceptions; by the thronging interests, intuitions, glimpses of
+wonders, beauties, and mysteries which made life for him a pageant and a
+splendor such as is only disclosed to the soul that has to bear the torment
+and revelations of genius."
+
+The burden of the world's sorrow; the longings and aspirations of the soul
+that has glimpsed, or that has more fully cognized the realms of the Spirit
+which are its rightful home; are ever a part of the price of liberation.
+The illumined mind sees and hears and feels the vibrations that emanate
+from all who are travailing in the meshes of the sense-conscious life; but
+through all the sympathetic sorrow, there runs the thread of a divine
+assurance and certainty of profound joy--a bliss that passes comprehension
+or description.
+
+Mrs. Sharp, in the final conclusion of the _Memoirs_ says "to quote my
+husband's own words--ever below all the stress and failure, below all the
+triumph of his toil, lay the _beauty of his dream_."
+
+In accordance with an oft-repeated request, these lines are inscribed on
+the Iona cross carved in lava, which marks the grave wherein is laid to
+rest the earthly form of William Sharp:
+
+  "Farewell to the known and exhausted,
+  Welcome the unknown and illimitable."
+
+And this:
+
+"Love is more great than we conceive, and death is the keeper of unknown
+redemptions."
+
+They are from his higher Self; from the illumined "Dominion of Dreams."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
+
+
+Oriental philosophies recognize four important methods of yoga.
+
+Yoga is the word which signifies "uniting with God." From what has gone
+before in these pages, the reader will understand that unity with God means
+to us, the uncovering of the god-nature within or above, the human
+personality; it means the attainment and retainment in _fullness_ of cosmic
+consciousness. We do not believe that any one retains full and complete
+realization of cosmic consciousness and remains in the physical body. The
+numerous instances to which we allude in former chapters, are at best, but
+temporary flights into that state, which is the goal of the soul's
+pilgrimage, and the only means of escape from the "ceaseless round of
+births and deaths" which so weighed upon the heart of Gautama.
+
+The paths of yoga then, are the methods by which the mind, in the personal
+self, is made to perceive the reality of the higher Self, and its relation
+to the Supreme Intelligence--The Absolute.
+
+The various methods or paths are pointed out, but no one, nor all of these
+paths guarantees illumination as a _reward_ for diligence. That which is in
+the _heart_ of the disciple is the key that unlocks the door.
+
+These paths are called:
+
+_Karma Yoga; Raja Yoga; Gnani Yoga; Bhakti Yoga_.
+
+_Karma Yoga_ is the path of cheerful submission to the conditions in which
+the disciple finds himself, believing that those conditions are his because
+of his needs, and in order that he may fulfill that which he has attracted
+to himself. The admonition "whatever thy hand finds to do that doest thou
+with all thy heart," sums up the lessons of the path of Karma Yoga. The
+urge to achieve: to do; to accomplish; to strive and attain, actuates those
+who have, whether with conscious intent, or because of a vague "inward
+urge," devoted their lives to taking an active part in the material or
+intellectual achievements of the race.
+
+There are those who are blindly following (as far as their mental
+operations are concerned), the path of Karma Yoga; that is, they work
+without knowing why they work; they work because they are compelled to do
+so, as slaves of the law; these will work their way out of that necessity
+of fulfillment, in the course of time, even though they blindly follow the
+urge; but, if they could be made to work as masters of the conditions under
+which they labor, instead of as slaves to environment, they would find
+themselves at the end of that path. Karma Yoga would have been
+accomplished.
+
+"Work as those work who are ambitious" but be not thou enslaved by the
+delusion of personal ambition--this is the password to liberation from
+Karma Yoga.
+
+_Raja Yoga_ is the way of the strongly individualized _will_. "_Knowledge
+is power_" is the hope which encourages the disciple on the path of Raja
+Yoga. He seeks to master the personal self by meditation, by concentration
+of will; by self discipline and sacrifice. When the ego gains complete
+control over the mental faculties, so that the mind may be directed as the
+individual will suggests, the student has mastered the path of Raja Yoga.
+If his mastery is complete, he finds himself regarding his body as the
+instrument of the Self, and the body and its functions are under the
+guidance of the ego; the mind is the lever with which this Self raises the
+consciousness from the lower to the higher vibrations. The student who has
+mastered Raja Yoga can induce the trance state; control his dreams as well
+as his waking thoughts; he may learn to practice magic in its higher
+aspects, but unless he is extremely careful this power will tempt him to
+use his knowledge for selfish or unworthy purposes.
+
+Let the student of Raja Yoga bear in mind the one great and high purpose of
+his efforts, which should be: the realization of his spiritual nature, and
+the development of his individual self, so that it finally merges into the
+spiritual Self, thus gaining immortality "in the flesh."
+
+Does this "flesh" mean the physical body? Not necessarily, because this
+that we see and name "the physical body" is not the real body, any more
+than the clothing that covers it, is the person, although frequently we
+recognize acquaintances _by their clothing_. Immortality in the flesh
+means cessation from further incarnations, the last and present personality
+including all others in consciousness, until we can say, "I, manifesting in
+the physical, as so-and-so, am now and forever immortal, remembering other
+manifestations which were not sufficiently complete, but which added to the
+sum of my consciousness until now I _know myself a deathless being_."
+
+To those who seek the path of Raja Yoga, we recommend meditation upon
+Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, of which there are several translations, differing
+slightly as to interpretation. We have selected some of the most important,
+from the translations by Johnston. They are designed to make clear the
+difference between the self of personality, and the Self, or _atman_ which
+manifests in personality:
+
+"The personal self seeks to feast upon life, through a failure to perceive
+the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual man. All
+personal experience really exists for the sake of another: namely, the
+spiritual man. By perfectly concentrated meditation on experience for the
+sake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual man."
+
+The wise person seeks experience in order that he may attain to the
+standard of the spiritual man; doing all things for the lessons that they
+teach; working "as those work who are ambitious," and yet having no
+personal ambition. Looking on all life, and at the self of personality and
+knowing the illusion of the self he is raising the personal self to the
+spiritual plane; but always he has the handicap of the desires of the lower
+self, the personal, which "seeks to feast on life," because it is born of
+the external, and its inherent appetites are for the satisfaction and
+pleasures of that physical self.
+
+We do not say to look upon the body with its needs and its desires, as an
+enemy to be overcome; or that its allurements are dangerous although
+pleasurable. No. We say to the student, "control the desires of the body.
+Make them do the bidding of the Self, because it is only by so doing that
+you can gain the immortal heights of god-hood, looking down upon the
+fleeting dream of personality, with its so-called pleasures, as a bad
+nightmare compared to the joys that await the immortals."
+
+Therefore, concentrate upon experience for the sake of the Self that you
+are, and learn the lesson of your experience, throwing aside the experience
+itself, as you would cast aside the skin of an orange from which the juice
+had been extracted. Don't fill the areas of your mortal mind with
+rubbish--with memories of "benefits forgot;" or loves unrequited; or
+friendships broken; or misspent hours; or unhallowed words and acts.
+
+Cull from each day's experience all that helps to develop the spiritual
+man--all that will stand the test of immortality--kind words and deeds;
+principle maintained; a wrong forgiven; a service cheerfully extended; a
+tolerance and generosity for the mistakes of others as well as for your
+own. These seem small things to the personal self--the ambitious, the
+gloating, the sense-desiring self of the personality; we scarcely take them
+into account, but to the Self that is seeking immortality, these are the
+grains of wheat from the load of chaff; the diamond in the carbon; the
+wings upon which the spirit soars to realms of bliss.
+
+_Meditate upon this sutra._
+
+"By perfectly concentrated meditation upon the heart, the interior being,
+comes the knowledge of consciousness."
+
+The heart is the guide of the inner nature, as the head is of the outer.
+Love, the Most High God, is not born in the head, but in the heart. The
+heart travails in pain through sorrow and loss and compassion and pity and
+loneliness and aspiration and sensitiveness; and lo! there is born from
+this pain, the spiritual Self, which embraces the lesser consciousness,
+enfolding all your consciousness in the softness and bliss of pure,
+Seraphic Love--the heritage of your immortality.
+
+_Meditate long and wisely upon this sutra._
+
+"Through perfectly concentrated meditation on the light in the head, come
+the visions of the Masters who have attained; or through the divining power
+of intuition he knows all things."
+
+There is a point in the head, anatomically named "the pineal gland"; this
+is frequently alluded to as the seat of the soul, but the soul is not
+confined within the body, therefore, it is in the nature of a key between
+the sense-conscious self and the spiritually conscious Self; it is like a
+central receiving station, and may be "called up," and aroused to
+consciousness by meditation. Realizing and focusing the light of the
+spiritual nature upon this part of the head, opens up those unexplored
+areas of consciousness in which the masters dwell, and the student knows by
+intuition, which is a higher aspect of reason, many things which were
+heretofore incomprehensible to the merely sense-conscious man.
+
+The spiritual Self is not a being unlike and wholly foreign to our concept
+of the perfect mortal-man; all the powers of discernment which we find in
+mortal consciousness are accentuated, intensified, refined; all grossness,
+all imperfections and embarrassments removed; pleasure sensitized to
+ecstasy; love glorified to worship. "Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper
+of the diamond; these are the endowments of that body."
+
+The spiritual body is shapely, strong, beautiful, imperishable, as the
+diamond, with all its brilliancy. No vapory, uncertain, or _unreal being_,
+but the Real, with the husk of sense-consciousness dropped off, and only
+the kernels of truth buried in the chaff of Experience, retained from the
+experiences of the personal self.
+
+"When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic body,
+he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all."
+
+The spiritual Self, the cosmic conscious Self, must not be confounded with
+the psychic body, which is formed from the emotions--passions; fears;
+hatreds; ambitions; resentments; envy; regrets. Know thyself as a being
+superior to all baser emotions, and the mastery over them is complete. They
+are not destroyed, but converted into love--the everlasting Source of Life.
+
+"There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the
+invitations of the different regions of life, lest attachment to things
+evil arise once more."
+
+It is said that the disciples, seeking the paths of Yoga, reach three
+degrees or stages of development; first, those who are just entering the
+path; second, those who are in the realm of allurements, subject to
+temptations; third, those who have won the victory over the senses and the
+external life--_maya_; fourth, those who are firmly entrenched behind the
+bulwark of certainty; the spiritual being realized: cosmic consciousness
+attained and retained.
+
+"By absence of all self indulgence at this point, also, the seeds of
+bondage of sorrow are destroyed, and pure spiritual being is attained."
+
+Self-abnegation and self-sacrifice have ever been the way of spiritual
+development; but we are prone to misunderstand and mistake the true
+interpretation of this admonition; men shut themselves in monasteries and
+women become nuns and recluses _as a penance_, in order to purchase, as it
+were, absolution (at-one-ness with The Absolute, which knows not sin); this
+is not the point intended here. Spiritual consciousness can not be bought;
+the desires of the personal self may be _sublimated_ into divine force and
+power, through recognizing the desires of the self as baubles which attract
+and fill the eye, until we fail to see the glories of that which awaits us.
+
+"Thereafter, the whole personal being bends toward illumination, full of
+the spirit of Eternal Life."
+
+Here again, we have assurance that the spiritually-conscious man, the
+"luminous body" is not a being apart from the self that we know our inner
+nature to be, but rather it _is_ the inner Self even as we in our ignorance
+and our lack of initiation, know it, raised to a higher realm of
+consciousness; our desires refined, spiritualized, made pure, and our
+faculties strengthened and immortalized. We do not withdraw from experience
+but we draw from Experience the _lesson_--the hidden wisdom of the
+initiate.
+
+_Meditate upon these sutras._
+
+"He who, after he has attained, is wholly free from self, is set in a cloud
+of holiness which is called Illumination. This is the true spiritual
+consciousness."
+
+This aphorism is self-explanatory. He who attains illumination, and
+afterward lives and acts from the inner consciousness--the _spiritual man_,
+is free from the desires of the sense-conscious life, with its consequent
+disappointments; he sees everything from the spiritual, rather than the
+mental point of view, and understands the phrase "and behold, all was
+good."
+
+"_Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil._"
+
+The one who has attained cosmic consciousness, acting always from the Self,
+and not from personal desires, is set free from karma; he has fulfilled the
+cycle; he makes no more bondage for himself; he is free and is already
+immortal.
+
+"When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is far-reaching,
+and not confined to the body, which is outside the body and not conditioned
+by it, then the veil which conceals the light is worn away."
+
+The acquisition of spiritual consciousness, Illumination, endows the mortal
+mind also, with a degree of power sufficient to penetrate the veil of
+illusion--the _maya_; the disciple then sees for the first time, all things
+in their true light. The separation between the personal self, and the
+spiritual being that we are, is so fine as to be like a cob-web veil, and
+yet how few penetrate it. The suddenness with which this awakening (for it
+is like awakening from a dream of the senses), comes, startles and
+surprises us, and then we become astonished at the transparency of the
+bonds that bound us to the limitations of the mortal, when we might have
+soared to realms of light.
+
+"By perfectly concentrated meditation on the correlation of the body with
+the ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down, will come the
+power to traverse the ether."
+
+The Zens say that the way of the gods is through the air and afterwards in
+the ether. This means that we must evolve from the physical to the psychic,
+and thence to the etheric or spiritual body. This is the way of the many.
+It is only the few who attain to perfect spiritual consciousness while
+manifesting in the physical, but these do not have to undergo "the second
+death" which is the dropping off of the psychic body, and assuming the
+spiritual body. They attain to immortality _in the flesh_, (i.e., in the
+present personality).
+
+"Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other powers,
+which are the endowment of the body, together with its unassailable force."
+
+The body here referred to, it must be borne in mind, is the etheric or
+spiritual body, which possesses the power to disintegrate matter; the power
+to annihilate time and space; so that he may look backward into remote
+antiquity and forward into boundless futurity; or as the commentator says,
+"he can touch the moon with the tip of his finger"; the power of levitation
+and limitless extension; the power of command; the power of creative will.
+
+These are the endowments of the spiritual body with which the disciple is
+seeking to establish his identity--that he may overcome the second death
+and become immortal _in consciousness_, here and now.
+
+Of this spiritual, or etheric body it is said, "Fire burns it not; water
+wets it not; the sword cleaves it not; dry winds parch it not. It is
+unassailable."
+
+_Meditate upon this sutra._
+
+"For him who discerns between the mind and the spiritual man (the Self)
+there comes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being."
+
+When the disciple has once grasped the fact that he _is_ a soul, and
+_possesses_ a mind and a physical covering, he has entered on the way of
+Illumination, and must inevitably reach the goal; then shall he find
+"perfect fruition of the longing" after the perfect Self, and its
+completement in union with the love that he craves. "Have you, in lonely
+darkness longed for companionship and consolation? You shall have angels
+and archangels for your friends and all the immortal hosts of the Dawn."
+
+Such are the Yoga sutras, or aphorisms, as enunciated by Patanjali.
+
+If the aspiring one were to give up a whole lifetime to their practice,
+gaining at last the consciousness of immortal life and love, what a small
+price to pay.
+
+_Raja Yoga_ with its methods and exercises, is the path of knowledge,
+through application; concentration; meditation.
+
+The practice of Raja Yoga will lead the student to the path of Gnani Yoga;
+and to the realization that Bhakti Yoga, the way of love and service will
+be included, not as an arduous task; not as a study, or as a means to an
+end, but because of the love of it.
+
+_Gnani Yoga_ comes as complementary to practice of the sutras because
+knowledge applied for the purpose of spiritual attainment brings _wisdom_.
+_Gnani Yoga_, then, is the path of wisdom. The follower of Gnani Yoga seeks
+the occult or hidden wisdom, and always has before him the idea of whether
+this or that be of the Self, the _atman_, or of the self, the personal,
+gradually eliminating from his desires all that does not answer the test of
+its reality in spiritual consciousness; he welcomes experiences of all
+kinds, as so many lessons from which he extracts the fine grain of truth,
+and throws aside the husks; he accepts nothing blindly or in faith, but
+"proves all things holding fast to that which is good"; not that he lacks
+faith, but because the very nature of his inquiry is to discover the
+interior nature and its relation to God.
+
+There are many in the world of to-day who feel the urge toward the path of
+Gnani Yoga, because of the conviction that is forcing itself upon every
+truly enlightened mind, that civilization with all its wonderful
+achievements, does not promise happiness, or solve the question of the
+soul's urge. In short, the educated, and the well conditioned, if he be a
+thinker, and not submerged in _maya_, lost in the personal self, inevitably
+finds himself searching for the _real_ in all this labyrinth of mind
+creations and sea of emotions, and then as a rule, he seeks the path of
+Gnani Yoga, because his intellect must be satisfied, even though his heart
+calls. The mystic, the teacher, and the philosopher are following the path
+of Gnani; so is the true occultist, but many who deal in so-called
+occultism are employing _knowledge_ only, entirely missing the higher
+quality--_wisdom_.
+
+_Bhakti Yoga_, the path of self-surrender; the thorny way through the
+emotions; the "blood of the heart," is the short cut to Illumination, if
+such a thing could be. But there is no "short cut"; nor yet a long road.
+
+Some one has said there are as many ways to God as there are souls. And
+yet, all persons who are on the upward climb, are demonstrating some one of
+these four paths, or a combination of the paths. It is, however, a
+significant fact that we do not hear anything of the great intellectual
+attainments of the three great masters--Krishna, Buddha and Jesus, but only
+of their great compassion; their wonderful love for mankind, and all living
+things.
+
+St. Paul, who was probably an educated man, as he held a position of
+prominence among those in authority, previous to his conversion, laid
+particular stress upon the love-nature as the way of illumination.
+
+And Jesus repeatedly said "Love is the fulfilling of the law." What is the
+law? The law of evolution and involution; of generation and regeneration;
+when the time should come, that Love was to reign on the planet earth as it
+does in the heavens above the earth, then should the kingdom of which he
+foretold "be at hand," and in conclusion of this _to-be_, Jesus promised
+that the law would be fulfilled when Love should come.
+
+So Swami Vivekananda in his exposition of Vedanta declares:
+
+"Love is higher than work, than yoga; than knowledge. Day and night think
+of God in the midst of all your activities. The daily necessary thoughts
+can all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see
+Him in all. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him act
+and do nothing ourselves. Complete self-surrender is the only way. Put out
+self, lose it; forget it."
+
+Let us substitute for the words "God," and "Him," the one word Love, and
+see what it is that we are told to do.
+
+Love of doing good frees us from work, even though we labor from early dawn
+until the night falls; so, too, if we have some loved one for whom we
+strive, we can endure every hardship with equanimity, as far as our own
+comfort is concerned. Few human beings in the world to-day are so enmeshed
+in the personal self as to work merely for the gratification of selfish
+instincts. The hard-working man, whether laborer or banker, must have some
+one else for whom he struggles and strives; otherwise, he descends to a
+level below that of the brute.
+
+This is the reason for the family; the lodge; the community; the nation;
+there must be some motive other than the preservation of the personal self,
+in order to develop the higher quality of love which embraces the world,
+until the spirit of a Christ takes possession of the human and he would
+gladly offer himself a sacrifice to the world, if by so doing he could
+eliminate all the pain from the world.
+
+How natural it is to feel, when we see a loved one suffering, that we would
+gladly take upon ourselves that pain; the heart fills with love until it
+aches with the burden of it; this love enlarged, expanded and impersonal in
+its application is the same love with which we are told to love God, and to
+"do all for Him." Do all for love of all the other hearts in the Universe
+that feel as we feel when their loved ones suffer--that is the way to love
+God--it is the only way we know. We only know divine love through human
+love: human love is divine when it is unselfish and eternal--not fed upon
+carnality, but anchored in spiritual complement.
+
+The story of Abou Ben Adhem ("may his tribe increase") tells us how we may
+know who loves the Lord. The angel wrote the names of those who loved the
+Lord most faithfully and fully, and coming to Abou Ben Adhem asked if he
+should write his name, and received the reply that he could not say whether
+he deeply loved the Lord, but he was quite certain that the angel could
+"write me as one who loves his fellow-men." And, lo! when the list was made
+and the names of all who loved the Lord recorded, Abou Ben Adhem's name
+headed the list.
+
+The Vedanta philosophy teaches non-attachment and Vivekananda himself says:
+"To love any one personally is bondage. Love all alike then all desires
+fall off."
+
+To love only the personal self of any one binds us to the sorrow of loss
+and of separation and disappointment; but to love any one spiritually is to
+establish a bond which can never be broken; which insures reunion, and
+defies time and space.
+
+We can not love all alike, though we can love all humanity impersonally.
+All desires that have their root in the sense-conscious plane of
+expression, will fall off when the heart is anchored in spiritual love; but
+let it be understood that spiritual love is not opposed to human love; we
+do not grow into spiritual love by denying the human, but by plussing the
+human.
+
+Spiritual consciousness is all that is good and pure and noble, and
+satisfying in the mortal and infinitely more. It is the love of personal
+self _plus_ the _Self_--the _atman_.
+
+Love is never unrequited. It is never wasted; never foolish. Love is its
+own self-justification; if it be real love, and not vanity, or self
+admiration, misnamed, give it freely, and don't ask for a return; don't ask
+whither it leads; only ask if it is real--if the love you feel is for the
+object of your love, or if it is for yourself--for you to possess and to
+minister to your pleasure; ask whether it is from the senses or from the
+heart.
+
+The way of the _Bhakti yoga_, is the way of love and service, because
+service to our fellow beings, is the inevitable complement of love. Where
+we truly love, we gladly serve. It has been said: "The chela treads a
+hair-line." That is to say, the initiate must be prepared to meet defeat at
+every turn. Not defeat of his object of attainment, but the personal defeat
+that so many seek in the delusion that the world's ideal of success is the
+real success.
+
+In conclusion we can only repeat what has been told and retold many times
+by all inspired ones, of whatever creed and race; namely, think and act
+always from the _inner Self_, cheerfully taking the consequences of your
+choice. Let not the opinions of the illusory world of the senses balk and
+thwart you. Let not the "worldly-wise" swerve you from your ideal and your
+faith in the final goal of your earthly pilgrimage--the attainment of
+spiritual consciousness _in your present personality_; this is the meaning
+of immortality in the flesh Doubt not this.
+
+Make love your ideal; your guide; your final goal; look for the inner Self
+of all whom you meet. "Learn to look into the _hearts_ of men," says the
+injunction in Light on the Path; dismiss from your mind all the
+accumulation of traditional concepts and prejudices that are not grounded
+in love, and above all _falter not_, nor doubt--no matter what seeming
+hardships you encounter in your earthly pilgrimage; they are but the
+Indian-clubs of your soul's gymnasium--Experience. "Meet with Triumph and
+Disaster, and treat these _two impostors_ just the same."
+
+Triumph and Disaster as seen with the eyes of sense-consciousness are both
+illusions; but don't for this reason cease your work. The phrase "you must
+work out your own salvation" is true. So also, you must be willing to do
+your part in working out the salvation of the world; salvation means simply
+the realization of the spiritual Being that you are--the attainment of that
+state of Illumination which guarantees immortality.
+
+Experience teaches one important lesson: Our sense-conscious life is filled
+with symbolic language if we have the inner eye of discernment. An
+unescapable truth is symbolized in our daily life by the evidence that we
+get nothing for nothing. Everything has its price.
+
+Immortality godhood, will not be handed to you on a silver salver; neither
+can any one withhold it from you, if you desire it above all things. And,
+altho' it has its price, yet _you can not buy it_. A seeming paradox, but
+the Initiate will see it all clearly enough when the time comes.
+
+  "He who would scale the Heights of Understanding
+  From whence the soul looks out forever free
+  Must falter not; nor fail; all truth demanding
+  Though he bear the cross and know Gethsemane."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The discouraged student says to himself: "If Truth demands such sorrow and
+sacrifice as this, I will not serve her. It is a false god that would so
+try his devotees."
+
+Have you not said it?
+
+The toll you pay is not to the Divine Self within, but to the "keepers of
+the threshold," that guard the entrance to the dwelling place of the
+Illuminati.
+
+Earthly lodges and brotherhoods are symbols of the higher initiations.
+
+There is a common mistake in the idea that the invisible states of
+consciousness are chaotic, or radically different from the visible.
+
+"As below, so above, and as above so below" is an aphorism constantly held
+before the eyes of the would-be initiate. Each of whom, must interpret and
+know it for himself.
+
+If the student finds the Raja Yoga sutras difficult of comprehension or of
+practice let him meditate upon the following mantrams:
+
+I know myself to be above the false concepts which assail the personal self
+that I _appear_ to be. I am united with the All-seeing All-knowing
+Consciousness.
+
+I abide in the consciousness of the Indestructibility and Omniscience of
+Being. I rest secure and content in the integrity of Cosmic Law which shall
+lead my soul unto its own, guaranteeing immortal love.
+
+I unite myself with that Power that makes for righteousness. Therefore
+nothing shall dismay or defeat me, because I am at-one with the limitless
+areas of spiritual consciousness.
+
+My mind is the dynamic center through which my soul manifests the Love
+which illumines the world. Only good can come to the world through me.
+
+Much that is called Mental Science, New Thought and Christian Science has
+for its aim and ideal, avoidance of all that does not make for personal
+well-being, and worldly success. Avoid this ideal; distrust this motive. Be
+ever willing to sacrifice the personal self to the Real Self, _if need be_.
+If the ideal is truly the desire for _illumination_, and not for
+self-gratification, the mind will soon learn to distinguish between the
+lesser and the greater. Have you longed for perfect, satisfying _human_
+love?
+
+You shall have it plussed a thousand fold in immortal spiritual union with
+_your_ god.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY.
+
+
+In the foregoing chapters we have set forth only a few of the facts and
+instances which the inquirer will find, if he but seek, of the reality of a
+supra-conscious faculty, no less actual, than are the faculties of the
+sense-conscious human, which type forms the average of the race.
+
+This faculty, or rather we should say _these faculties_--because they find
+expression in many ways, through avenues correlative to the physical
+senses--prove the existence of a realm of consciousness, far above the
+planes of the mortal or sense-conscious man, and transcending the region
+known as the astral and psychic areas of consciousness.
+
+All who have reported their experiences in contacting this illimitable
+region unite in the essential points of experience, namely:
+
+The experience is indescribable.
+
+It confers an unshakable conviction of immortality.
+
+It discloses the fact that we are now living in this supra-conscious realm;
+that it is not something which we acquire after death; it _is_ not _to be_.
+
+This realm is characterized by a beautiful, wonderful radiant iridescent
+light.
+
+"_O green fire of life, pulse of the world, O love."_
+
+It fills the heart with a great and all-embracing love, establishing a
+realization of the silent Brotherhood of the Cosmos, demolishing all
+barriers of race and color and class and condition.
+
+Illumination is inclusive. It knows no separation.
+
+It announces the fact that every person is right from his point of view.
+
+"That nothing walks with aimless feet; that no one life shall be destroyed;
+or cast as rubbish on the void; when God hath made the pile complete."
+
+That Life and Love and Joy unutterable are the reward of the seeker; and
+that there is no one and only path.
+
+All systems; all creeds; all methods that are formulated and upheld by
+altruism are righteous, and that the Real is the spiritual--the external is
+a dream from which the world is awakening to the consciousness of the
+spiritual man--the _atman_--the Self that is ageless; birthless;
+deathless--divine. On all sides are evidences that the race is entering
+upon this new consciousness.
+
+So many are weary with the strife and struggle and noise of the
+sense-conscious life.
+
+The illusions of possessions which break in our hands as we grasp them; of
+empty titles of so-called "honor," builded upon prowess in war; the
+feverish race after wealth--cold as the marble palaces which it builds to
+shut in its worshippers--all these things are becoming skeleton-like and
+no longer deceive those who are even remotely discerning the new birth.
+
+The new heraldry will have for its badge of royalty "Love and Service to my
+Fellow Beings," displacing the "Dieu et mon Droit" of the ancient ideal.
+
+The Dawn is here. Are you awake?
+
+  "--In the heart of To-day is the word of To-morrow.
+  The Builders of Joy are the Children of Sorrow."
+
+
+
+
+Jesus The Last Great Initiate
+
+By EDOUARD SCHURE
+
+
+Mr. Schure in this volume, has done much to strengthen the belief that
+Jesus was an Essene, in whom a Messianic consciousness was awakened by
+special initiation.
+
+A remarkable full account is given of his experiences among the Essenes and
+how his early life, (about which the Bible is so reticent) was spent
+studying with the advanced Occult masters.
+
+The problem of how Jesus became the Messiah, he holds to be not capable of
+solution without the aid of intuition and esoteric tradition.
+
+The life of the great Teacher as pictured by the writer is one to be
+dreamed over and capable of imparting both knowledge and stimulus to that
+inner life which is in so many undeveloped and even unsuspected.
+
+Bound Silk Cloth.
+
+Price $0.80 Postpaid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Krishna and Orpheus
+
+The Great Initiates of the East and West
+
+By EDOUARD SCHURE
+
+
+The lives and teachings of these two great Masters who preceeded Jesus are
+very much like the latter's. You cannot help noting the remarkable
+resemblance they bear to each other.
+
+Krishna's Virgin Birth, His Youth, Initiation, The Doctrine of the
+Initiates, Triumph and Death, are all told in a fashion that shows that
+Mr. Schure has devoted much time to thought and research work. The mighty
+religious of India, Egypt and Greece are passed in rapid review and the
+author declares that while from the outside they present nothing but chaos,
+the root idea of their founders and prophets presents a key to them all.
+
+Bound in Silk Cloth.
+
+Price $0.80 Postpaid.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 14002-8.txt or 14002-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/0/14002
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/old/14002-8.zip b/old/14002-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aa11a92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14002-8.zip
diff --git a/old/14002.txt b/old/14002.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fda506c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14002.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8049 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Cosmic Consciousness, by Ali Nomad
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Cosmic Consciousness
+
+Author: Ali Nomad
+
+Release Date: November 10, 2004  [eBook #14002]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Valerine Blas, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+The Man-God Whom We Await
+
+by
+
+ALI NOMAD
+
+1915
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW BIRTH; WHAT IT IS; INSTANCES DESCRIBED
+
+
+The religions and philosophies of the Orient and the Occident compared;
+their chief difference; The mistaken idea of death. Cosmic Consciousness
+not common in the Orient. Why? What the earnest disciple strives for. The
+Real and the unreal. Buddha's agonized yearnings; why he was moved by them
+with such irresistible power; the ultimate victory. The identity of The
+Absolute; The Oriental teachings; "The Spiritual Maxims of Brother
+Lawrence;" The seemingly miraculous power of the Oriental initiate; does
+he really "talk" to birds and animals? How they learn to know and read "the
+heart of the world." The inner temples throughout Japan. The strange
+experience of a Zen (a Holy Order of Japan), student-priest in attaining
+_mukti_. The key to Realization. An address by Manikyavasayar, one of the
+great Tamil saints of Southern India. The Hindu conception of Cosmic
+Consciousness. The Japanese idea of the state. The Buddhist "Life-saving"
+monasteries; how the priests extend their consciousness to immeasurable
+distances at will. The last incarnation of God in India. His marvelous
+insight. The urge of the spiritual yearning for the "Voice of the Mother."
+His twelve years of struggle. His final illumination. The unutterable bliss
+pictured in his own words. What the Persian mystics allusion to "union with
+the Beloved" signifies; its exoteric and its esoteric meaning. The "Way of
+the Gods." The chief difference between the message of Jesus and that of
+other holy men. The famous "Song of Solomon" and the different
+interpretations; a new version. A French writer's evident glimpses of the
+new birth. Man's relation to the universe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN
+
+
+The great riddle and a new solution. The persistence of the ideal of
+Perfected Man; Has it any basis in history? The superlative faculty of
+spiritual sight as depicted by artists, painters and sculptors. Symbols of
+consciousness. The way in which the higher consciousness expresses itself.
+Certain peculiar traits which distinguish those destined to the influx. The
+abode of the gods; The conditioned promise of godhood in Man. What is
+Nirvana? The Vedantan idea. The Christian idea. Did Jesus teach the kingdom
+of God on earth? Is there a basis for belief in physical immortality? A
+new explanation. The perilous paths. Those who "will see God." Evolution
+of consciousness from prehistoric man to the highest developed beings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+
+The Divine spark. Consciousness the essence of everything. Axioms of
+universal Occultism. The great central light. The teachings of Oriental
+seers regarding the ultimate goal. Different stages of mankind. Births in
+consciousness. Physical consciousness: its limitations. Mental
+consciousness: the jungles of the mind. Soul consciousness; whither it
+leads. The irresistible urge. Why we obey it. Sayings of ancient
+manuscripts. Perfecting Light. The disciple's test. Awakening of the divine
+man. Is he now on earth? What is meant by the awakening of the inner Self.
+Is the _atman_ asleep? The doctrine of illusion; its relation to Cosmic
+Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS
+
+
+The Dark Ages. The esoteric meaning of religious practices. The penetrating
+power of spiritual insight. The mystery of conversion. The paradox of
+Self-attainment and the necessity for selflessness. The Oriental teachings
+regarding the Self. The wisdom of the Illumined Master. The test of fitness
+for Nirvana. What caused Buddha the greatest anxiety? Experiences of
+Oriental sages and their testimony. What correlation exists between
+Buddha's desire and the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness among
+Occidental disciples.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS AFTER EFFECTS
+
+
+The wonderful brilliancy of Illumination. Dr. Bucke's description of the
+Cosmic Light; his opinion regarding the possibility of becoming more
+general. Peculiar methods of producing spiritual ecstacy, as described by
+Lord Tennyson and others. The Power and Presence of God, as a reality. The
+dissolution of race barriers. The effacement of the sense of sin among the
+Illuminati. What is meant by the phrase "naked and unashamed." Will such a
+state ever exist on the earth? Efforts of those who have experienced Cosmic
+Consciousness to express the experience; the strange similarity found in
+all attempts. Is there any evidence that Cosmic Consciousness is possible
+to all?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION
+
+
+The simple religion of early Japan. The inner or secret shrine: its
+esoteric and its exoteric office. The Mystic Brotherhoods. Why the esoteric
+meanings have always been veiled. The great teachers and the uniformity of
+their instructions. Philosophy as taught by Vivekananda. The fundamental
+doctrine of Buddhism. Have the present-day Buddhists lost the key? Is
+religion necessary to Illumination? The fruits of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER
+
+
+The salient features of the Law as given by Moses to his people. Had the
+ancient Hebrews any knowledge of Illumination and its results? The symbol
+of liberation. Its esoteric meaning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE
+
+
+Prenatal conditions influencing Buddha. His strange temperament. His
+peculiar trances and their effect upon him. Why Buddha endured such
+terrible struggles; is suffering necessary to Cosmic Consciousness? From
+what was Buddha finally liberated? The simplicity of Buddha's commandments
+in the light of Cosmic Consciousness. The fundamental truths taught by
+Buddha and all other sages. Buddha's own words regarding death and Nirvana.
+Last words to his disciples. How the teachings of Buddha compare with the
+vision of Cosmic Consciousness. His method of development of spiritual
+consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JESUS OF NAZARETH
+
+
+The astonishing similarity found in all religious precepts; the
+distinguishing feature of the teachings as delivered by Jesus. His repeated
+allusion to "the light within." The great commandment he gave to his
+disciples. Love the basis of the teachings of all Illumined minds. The
+"Second Coming of Christ." The signs of the times.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PAUL OF TARSUS
+
+
+His undoubted experience of illumination and its effects. Was Paul changed
+by "conversion," or what was the wonderful power that altered his whole
+life? Why Paul sought seclusion after his illumination. Characteristics of
+all Illumined ones. The desire for simplicity. Paul's incomparable
+description of "the Love that never faileth." The safe guide to
+illumination. The "first fruits of the spirit," as prophesied by Paul.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MOHAMMED
+
+
+Mohammed a predestined Leader. Condition of Arabia at his birth. Prophecies
+of a Messiah. His peculiar psychic temperament; his frequent attacks of
+catalepsy; his sufferings because of doubt; his never-ceasing urge toward a
+final revelation. His changed state after the revelation on Mt. Hara. His
+unswerving belief in his mission; his devotion to Truth; His simplicity and
+humility. His claim to Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
+
+
+Swedenborg's early life. His sudden change from materialism. The difficulty
+of clear enunciation. His unfailing belief in the divinity of his
+revelations. How they compare with experiences of others. The frequent
+reception of the Light. The blessing of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
+BALZAC
+
+
+The way to Illumination through intellectual cultivation; Emerson a notable
+example; The Cosmic note in his essays and conversations. Emerson's
+religious nature. His familiarity with Oriental philosophy; his remarkable
+discrimination; the peculiar penetrating quality of his intellect. His
+never failing assurance of unity with the Divine. His belief in a spiritual
+life. Did Emerson predict a Millenium? His writings as they reflect light
+upon his attainment of Cosmic Consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+LEO TOLSTOI--RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER
+
+
+Tolstoi the strangest and most unusual figure of the Nineteenth Century;
+His almost unbearable sufferings; his avowed materialism; his horror of
+death; The prevailing gloom of his writings and to what due. Incidents in
+his life previous to his illumination. The remarkable and radical change
+made by his experience. To what was due Tolstoi's great struggle and
+suffering? Why the great philosopher sought to die in a hut. His idea not
+one of penance. The signal change in his life after illumination. What he
+says of this.
+
+
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC
+
+
+Balzac's classification as of the psychic temperament. His amazing power of
+magnetic attraction. His feminine refinement in dress. His power of
+inspiration gave him his place in French literature. The dominant motive of
+all his writings. His unshakable conviction of immortality. His power to
+function on both planes of consciousness. The lesson to be drawn from
+Seraphita. Balzac's evident intention, and why veiled. The inevitable
+conclusion to be drawn from the Symbolical character.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT
+
+
+Poetry the language of Cosmic Consciousness. Unconscious instruments of the
+Cosmic law. The true poet and the maker of rhymes. The mission and scope of
+the poetical temperament. How "temperament" affects expression. No royal
+road to Illumination. Teaching of Oriental mysticism. Whitman's
+extraordinary experience. His idea of "Perfections." Lord Tennyson's two
+distinct states of consciousness; his early boyhood and strange
+experiences. Facts about his illumination. The after effects. Tennyson's
+vision of the future. Wordsworth, the poet of Nature. How he attained and
+lost spiritual illumination. How he again received the great Light. The
+evidences of two states of consciousness. Outline of his illumination.
+Noguchi--a most remarkable instance of Illumination in early youth; Lines
+expressive of an exalted state of consciousness; how it resulted in later
+life. The strange case of William Sharp and "Fiona Macleod:" a perfect
+example of dual consciousness; the distinguishing features of the self and
+the Self; the fine line of demarcation. How the writer succeeded in living
+two distinct lives and the result. Remarkable contribution to literature. A
+puzzling instance of phases of consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
+
+
+The four Oriental methods of liberation. The goal of the soul's pilgrimage.
+Strange theory advanced. Revolutionary results that follow. How to perceive
+the actuality of the higher Self. Gaining immortality "In the flesh;" What
+Revelation has promised and its substantiation in modern Science. The prize
+and the price. Some valuable Yoga exercises to induce spiritual ecstacy.
+What "union with God" really means. The "Brahmic Bliss" of the Upanashads.
+The new race; its powers and privileges. "The man-god whom we await" as
+described by Emerson.
+
+
+
+
+THE SELF AND SYMBOL
+
+
+  Thou most Divine! above all women
+  Above all men in consciousness.
+
+  Thou in thy nearness to me
+  Hast shown me paths of love.
+  Yea; walks that lead from hell
+  To the great light; where life and love
+    Do ever reign.
+
+  Thou hast taught to me a patience
+  To behold whatever state;
+  However beautiful and joyful; however ugly and sorrowful.
+
+  To know that these are--all!--but
+  The glimmerings of the greater life--
+  Expressions of the infinite.
+
+  According to the finality of that moment
+  Now to come; in the eternal now, which thou
+  Sweet Presence, hast awakened me to--
+  I see the light--the way.
+
+  An everlasting illumination
+  That takes me to the gate; the open door
+  To the house of God.
+  There I find most priceless jewels;
+  The key to all the ways,
+  That lead from _Om_ to thee.
+
+  A mistake--an off-turn from the apparent road of right
+  Is but the bruising of thy temple,
+  Calling thy Self--thy soul--
+  The God within; showing thee,
+  The _nita_ of it all; which is but the half of me.
+
+  And as thy consciousness of the two
+  The _nita_ and the _ita_, comes to thee
+  A three is formed--the trinity is found.
+
+  Through thee the Deity hast spoken
+  Uniting the two in the one;
+
+  Revealing the illusion of mortality
+  The message of _Om_ to the Illumined.
+
+--Ali Nomad.
+
+
+
+
+ARGUMENT
+
+
+
+
+Man is essentially a spiritual being.
+
+The source of this spiritual Omniscience we may not, in our finite
+intelligence, fully cognize, because full cognition would preclude the
+possibility of finite expression.
+
+The destiny of man is perfection.
+
+Man perfected becomes a god.
+
+"Only the gods are immortal," we are told.
+
+Let us consider what this means, supposing it to be an axiom of truth.
+
+Mortality is subject to change and death. Mortality is the manifest--the
+stage upon which "man in his life plays many parts."
+
+Immortality, is what the word says it is--godhood re-cognized in the
+mortal. "Im" or, "Om"--the more general term--stands for the Changeless.
+Birthless. Deathless. Unnamable Power that holds the worlds in space, and
+puts intelligence into man.
+
+Biologists, even though they were to succeed in reproducing life by
+chemical processes from so-called "lifeless" (sterilized) _matter_, making
+so high a form of manifestation as man himself, yet could never name _the
+power by which they accomplished it_.
+
+Always there must remain the Unknownable--the Absolute.
+
+"Om," therefore, is the word we use to express this Omniscient, Omnipotent
+and Omnipresent power.
+
+The term "mortal" we have already defined. The compound immortal, applied
+to individual man, stands for one who has made his "at-one-ment" with Om,
+and who has, while still in the mortal body, re-cognized himself as one
+with Om.
+
+This is what it means to escape the "second death," to which the merely
+mortal consciousness is subject.
+
+This is the goal of every human life; this is the essence, the _substance_
+of all religious systems and all philosophies.
+
+The only chance for disputation among theologians and philosophers, lies in
+the way of accomplishing this at-one-ment. There is not the slightest
+opportunity for a difference of opinion as what they wish to accomplish.
+
+Admitting then, that the goal of every soul is the same--immortality--(the
+mortal consciousness cognizing itself as Om), we come to a consideration of
+the evidence we may find in support of this axiom. This evidence we do
+_not_ find satisfactory, in spirit communication; in psychic experiences;
+in hypnotic phenomena; and astral trips; important, and reliable as these
+many psychic research phenomena are.
+
+These are not satisfactory or convincing evidences of our at-one-ment with
+Om, because they do not preclude the probability of the "second death;" but
+on the contrary, they verify it.
+
+However, aside from all these psychic phenomena, there is a phase of human
+experience, much more rare but becoming somewhat general, that transcends
+phenomena of every kind.
+
+The western world has given to these experiences the term "cosmic
+consciousness," which term is self explanatory.
+
+The Orientals have long known of this goal of the soul, and they have terms
+to express this, varying with the many types of the Oriental mind, but all
+meaning the same thing. This meaning, from our Occidental viewpoint, is
+best translated in the term liberation, signifying to be set free from the
+limitations of sense, and of self-consciousness, and to have glimpsed the
+larger area of consciousness, that takes in the very cosmos.
+
+This experience is accompanied by a great light, whether this light is
+manifested as spiritual, or as intellectual power, determines its
+expression.
+
+The object of this book is to call attention to some of the more pronounced
+instances of this Illumination, and to classify them, according as they
+have been expressed through religions enthusiasm; poetical fervor; or great
+intellectual power.
+
+But we have also one other argument to make, and this we present with a
+conviction of its _truth_, while conceding that it must remain a _theory_,
+until proven, each individual, man or woman, for himself and herself. The
+postulate is this: immortality (i.e. godhood) is bi-sexual. No male person
+can by any possibility become an immortal god, in, of and by himself; no
+female person can be complete without the "other half" that makes the ONE.
+
+Each and every SOUL, therefore, has its spiritual counterpart--its "other
+half," with which it unites on the spiritual plane, when the time comes for
+attainment of immortality.
+
+Sex is an eternal verity. The entire Cosmos is bi-sexual. Everything in the
+visible universe; in the manifest, is the result of this universal
+principle. "As above so below," is a safe rule, as far as the IDEA goes.
+This hypothesis does not preclude _perfection_ above, of that which we find
+below, but any radical reversion or repudiation of nature is inconceivable.
+
+"Male and female created he them." This being true, male and female must
+they return to the source from which they sprung, completing the circle,
+and gaining what?
+
+_Consciousness of godhood; of completeness in counterpartal union. Not
+absorption_ of consciousness, but _union_, which is quite a different
+idea.
+
+Out of this counterpartal union a race of gods will be born, and these
+_supermen_, shall "inherit the earth" making it a "fit dwelling place for
+the gods."
+
+This earth is now being made fit. This fact may seem a far distant hope if
+we do not judge with the eyes of the seer, but its proof lies in the
+emancipation of woman. Its evidences are many and varied, but the awakening
+of woman is the _cause_.
+
+This awakening of woman constitutes the first rays of the dawn--that
+long-looked for Millenium, which many of us have regarded as a mere figure
+of speech, instead of as a literal truth.
+
+The argument is not that there has been no individual awakening until the
+present time; but that never before in the finite history of the world has
+there been such a general awakening, and as it is self evident that
+conditions will reflect the idea of the majority, the fact that woman is
+being given her rightful place in the sense-conscious life, proves that the
+earth will be a fit dwelling place for a higher order of beings than have
+hitherto constituted the majority.
+
+The numerous instances of Illumination, or cosmic consciousness which are
+forcing attention at the present time, prove that there is a
+_race-awakening_ to a realization of our unity with Om.
+
+Another point which we trust these pages will make clear is this: So-called
+"revelation" is neither a personal "discovery," nor any special act of a
+divine power. "God spake thus and so to me," is a phrase which the
+self-conscious initiate employs, _because he has lost sight of the_ cosmic
+light, or because he finds it expedient to use that phraseology in
+delivering the message of cosmic consciousness.
+
+If we will substitute the term "_initiation_," for the term "_revelation_,"
+we will have a clearer idea of the truth.
+
+Perhaps some of our readers will feel that the terms mean the same, but for
+the most part, those who have employed the word "revelation," have used it
+as implying that the plan of the cosmos was unfinished, and that the
+Creator, having found some person suitable to convey the latest decision
+to mankind, natural laws had been suspended and the revelation made.
+
+It is to correct this view, that we emphasize the distinction between the
+two words.
+
+The cosmos is complete. "As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever
+shall be, worlds without end."
+
+A circle is without beginning or end. We, in our individual consciousness
+may traverse this circle, but our failure to realize its completeness does
+not change the fact that it is finished.
+
+We can not add to the universal consciousness; nor take away therefrom.
+
+But we can extend our own area of consciousness from the narrow limits of
+the personal self, into the heights and depths of the atman and who shall
+set limitations to the power of the atman, the higher Self, when it has
+attained at-one-ment with Om?
+
+It is not the purpose of this book to trace the spiritual ascent of man
+further than to point out the wide gulf between the degrees of
+consciousness manifested in the lower animals and that of human
+consciousness; again tracing in the human, the ever-widening area of his
+cognition of the personal self, and its needs, to the awakening of the soul
+and its needs; which needs include the welfare of all living things as an
+absolute necessity to individual happiness.
+
+Altruism, therefore, is not a virtue. It is a means of
+self-preservation--without this degree of initiation into the boundless
+area of universal, or cosmic consciousness, we may not escape the karmic
+law.
+
+The revelations, therefore, upon which are founded the numerous religious
+systems, are comparable with the many and various degrees of initiation
+into THAT WHICH IS.
+
+They represent the degree which the initiate has taken in the lodge.
+
+It may be argued that this fact of individual initiation into the
+ever-present truth of Being, as into a lodge, offers no proof that this
+earth is to ultimately become a heaven. It may be that this planet is the
+outer-most lodge room and that there will never be a sufficient number of
+initiates to make the earth a fit dwelling place for a higher order of
+beings than now inhabit it. This may, indeed, be true. But all evidence
+tends toward the hope that even the planet itself will come under the
+regenerating power of Illumination.
+
+All prophecies embody this promise; all that we know of what materialists
+call "evolution" and occultists might well name "uncovering of
+consciousness," points to a time when "God's will," "shall be done on earth
+as it is in heaven."
+
+All who have attained to cosmic consciousness in whatever degree, have
+prophecied a _time_, when this blessing would descend upon every one; but
+the difficulty in adequately explaining this great gift seems also to have
+been the burden of their cry.
+
+Jesus sought repeatedly to describe to his hearers the wonders of the
+cosmic sense, but realized that he was too far in advance of the cyclic
+end; but even as at that time, a number of disciples were capable of
+receiving the Illumination, so to-day, a larger number are capable of
+attainment. If this number is great enough to bring about the
+regeneration--the perfecting--of the earth conditions, then it _must be
+accomplished_.
+
+We believe that it is. We make the claim that the Millenium _has dawned_;
+and although it may be many years before the light of the morning breaks
+into the full light of the day, yet the rays of the dawn are dispelling the
+world's long night.
+
+In his powerful and prophetic story "In the Days of the Comet," H.G. Wells,
+tells of a _great change_ that comes over the world following an
+atmospheric phenomenon in which a "green vapor" is generated in the clouds
+and falls upon the earth with instantaneous effect.
+
+As this peculiar vapor descends, it has the effect of putting every one to
+sleep; this sleep continues for three days and when people finally awake,
+their interior nature has undergone a complete change.
+
+Where before they "saw dimly," they now see clearly; the petty differences
+and quarrels are perceived in their true perspective. Instead of place, and
+power, and influence, and wealth, being all-important goals of ambition as
+before the change, every one now strives to be of service to the world.
+Love and kindness become greater factors than commercial expediency and
+business success.
+
+In many respects, Wells' description of the great change and its effect
+upon people, corresponds with the effect of Illumination.
+
+The sense of entering into the very heart of things; of growing plants; the
+birds and the little wood animals; the intense sympathy and understanding
+of life described by him, sounds like the effect of cosmic consciousness,
+as related by nearly all who have attained it.
+
+How the world's activities are resumed after the change, and under what
+vastly different incentives people work, form a part of the story, which is
+written as fiction, but which contains the seed of a great truth.
+
+This truth is expressed in science, as human achievement, and in religion
+as fulfilled prophecy, but the truth is the same.
+
+Both religion and science point to a _time_ when this earth will know
+freedom from strife and suffering. Even the elements which have hitherto
+been regarded as beyond the boundaries of man's will, may be completely
+controlled; not _may be_, but _will be_. Manual labor will cease. National
+Eugenic societies will put a stop to war, when they come to the inevitable
+conclusion, that no race can by any possibility be improved, while the most
+perfect physical species are reserved for armies.
+
+Awakening woman will refuse--indeed they are now refusing--to bear children
+to be shot down in warfare, and crushed under the juggernaut of commercial
+competition.
+
+Those who realize the signs of the times, look for the birth of cosmic
+consciousness as a race-consciousness, foreshadowing the new day; the
+"second coming of Christ," not as a personal, vicarious sacrifice, but as a
+factor in human attainment.
+
+"For I am persuaded," said St. Paul, "that neither death nor life, nor
+angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
+powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God."
+
+If we interpret this in the light of cosmic consciousness, we realize that
+we shall know, and _experience_ that boundless, deathless, perfect,
+satisfying, complete and all-embracing love which is the goal of
+immortality; which is an attribute (we may say the _one_ attribute) of
+God.
+
+We are not looking for the birth of _a_ Christ-child, but of _the_
+Christ-child; we are not looking for a second coming of _a_ man who shall
+be as Jesus was, but we are anticipating the coming of _the_ man (homo),
+who shall be cosmically conscious, even as was Jesus of Nazareth; as was
+Guatama, the Buddha.
+
+That there may be one man and one woman who shall first achieve this
+consciousness and realization is barely possible, but the preponderance of
+evidence is for a more general awakening to the light of Illumination.
+
+"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an
+eye," said St. Paul.
+
+The prophecy of "the woman clothed with the sun, and with the moon under
+her feet," is not of _a_ woman, but of Woman, in the light of a race of men
+who have attained cosmic consciousness.
+
+Nothing more is needed to make a heaven of earth, than that the great light
+and love that comes of Illumination, shall become dominant.
+
+It will solve all problems, because problems arise only because we are
+groping in the dark. The elimination of selfishness; of condemnation; of
+fear and anger, and doubt, must have far greater power for universal
+happiness and well-being than all the systems which theology or science or
+politics could devise. Indeed, all these systems are sporadic and empirical
+attempts to express the vague dawning of Illumination.
+
+In the fullness of its light, the need for systems will have passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE NEW BIRTH: WHAT IT IS: INSTANCES DESCRIBED
+
+
+The chief difference between the religions and the philosophies of the
+Orient and those of the Occident, lies in the fact that the Oriental
+systems, methods, and practices, emphasize the assumption that the goal of
+these efforts, is attainable at any moment, as it were.
+
+That is, Oriental religion--speaking in the broad sense--teaches that the
+disciple need not wait for the experience called death to liberate the
+Self, the _atman_, from the enchantment or delusion, the _maya_, of the
+external world. Indeed, the Oriental devotee well knows that physical
+death, _mrityu_, is not a guarantee of liberation; does not necessarily
+bring with it immortality.
+
+He well recognizes that physical death is but a procedure in existence.
+Death does not of itself, change the condition of _maya_, in which the
+disciple is bound until such a time, as he has earned liberation--_mukti_,
+which condition may be defined as immunity from further incarnation.
+
+Immortality is our rightful heritage but it must be claimed,--yea, it must
+be _earned_.
+
+It is a mistake to imagine that death makes man immortal. Immortality is
+an attribute of the gods. But since all souls possess a spark of the divine
+essence of Brahman (The Absolute), _mukti_ may be attained by earnest
+seeking, and thus immortality be _realized_.
+
+This condition of awakening, is variously named among Oriental sages and
+chelas, such for instance as glimpsing the _Brahmic splendor; mutki;
+samadhi; moksha; entering Nirvana_; becoming "_twice-born_."
+
+In recent years there have come to light in the Occident a number of
+instances of the attainment of this state, and these have been described
+as "cosmic consciousness;" "illumination;" "liberation;" the "baptism of
+the Holy Ghost;" and becoming "immersed in the great white light."
+
+Baptism, which is a ceremony very generally incorporated into religious
+systems, is a symbol of this esoteric truth, namely the necessity for
+Illumination in order that the soul may be "saved" from further
+incarnations--from further experience.
+
+The term cosmic consciousness as well describes this condition of the
+disciple, as any words can, perhaps, although the term liberation is more
+literal, since the influx of this state of being, is actually the
+liberation of the _atman_, the eternal Self, from the illusion of the
+external, or _maya_.
+
+Contrary to the general belief, instances of cosmic consciousness are not
+extremely rare, although they are not at all general. Particularly is this
+true in the Orient, where the chief concern as it were, of the people has
+for centuries been the realization of this state of liberation.
+
+The Oriental initiate in the study of religious practices, realizes that
+these devotions are for the sole purpose of attaining _mukti_, whereas in
+the Occident, the very general idea held by the religious devotee, is one
+of penance; of propitiation of Deity. This truth applies essentially to the
+initiate, the aspirant for priesthood, or guru-ship. No qualified priest or
+guru of the Orient harbors any doubt regarding the _object_, or purpose of
+religious practices. The attainment of the spiritual experience described
+in occidental language as "cosmic consciousness" is the goal.
+
+The goal is not a peaceful death; nor yet an humble entrance into heaven as
+a place of abode; nor is it the ultimate satisfying of a God of extreme
+justice; the "eye for an eye" God of the fear-stricken theologian.
+
+One purpose only, actuates the earnest disciple, like a glorious star
+lighting the path of the mariner on life's troublous sea. That goal is the
+attainment of that beatific state in which is revealed to the soul and the
+mind, the real and the unreal; the eternal substance of truth, and the
+shifting kaleidoscope of _maya_.
+
+Nor can there be any purpose in the pursuit of either religion or
+philosophy other than this attainment; nor does the unceasing practice of
+rites and ceremonies; of contemplation; renunciation; prayers; fasting;
+penance; devotion; service; adoration; absteminousness; or isolation,
+insure the attainment of this state of bliss. There is no bartering; no
+assurance of reward for good conduct. It is not as though one would say,
+"Ah, my child, if thou wouldst purchase liberation thou shalt follow
+this recipe."
+
+No golden promises of speedy entrance into Paradise may be given the
+disciple. Nor any exact rules, or laws of equation by virtue of which the
+goal shall be reached. Nor yet may any specific time be correctly estimated
+in which to serve a novitiate, before final initiation.
+
+Many indeed, attain a high degree of spirituality, and yet not have found
+the key of perfect liberation, although the goal may be not far off.
+
+Many, very many, on earth to-day, are living so close to the borderland of
+the new birth that they catch fleeting glimpses of the longed-for freedom,
+but the full import of its meaning does not dawn. There is yet another
+veil, however thin, between them and the Light.
+
+The Buddha spent seven years in an intense longing and desire to attain
+that liberation which brought him consciousness of godhood--deliverance
+from the sense of sin and sorrow that had oppressed him; immunity from the
+necessity for reincarnation.
+
+Jesus became a _Christ_ only after passing through the agonies of
+Gethsemane. A Christ is one who has found liberation; who has been born
+again in his individual consciousness into the inner areas of consciousness
+which are of the _atman_, and this attainment establishes his identity with
+The Absolute.
+
+All oriental religions and philosophies teach that this state of
+consciousness, is possible to all men; therefore all men are gods in
+embryo.
+
+But no philosophy or religion may promise the devotee the realization of
+this grace, nor yet can they deny its possible attainment to any.
+
+Strangely enough, if we estimate men by externalities, we discover that
+there is no measure by which the supra-conscious man may be measured. The
+obscure and unlearned have been known to possess this wonderful power which
+dissolves the seeming, and leaves only the contemplation of the Real.
+
+So also, men of great learning have experienced this rebirth; but it would
+seem that much cultivation of the intellectual qualities, unless
+accompanied by an humble and reverent spirit, frequently acts as a barrier
+to the realization of supra-consciousness.
+
+In "Texts of Taoism," Kwang-Tse, one of the Illuminati, writes:
+
+"He whose mind is thus grandly fixed, emits a heavenly light. In him who
+emits this heavenly light, men see the true man (i.e., the _atman_; the
+Self). When a man has cultivated himself to this point, thenceforth he
+remains constant in himself. When he is thus constant in himself, what is
+merely the human element will leave him, but Heaven will help him. Those
+whom Heaven helps, we call the sons of Heaven. Those who would, by
+learning, attain to this, seek for what they _can not learn_."
+
+Thus it will be seen, that according to the reports offered us by this wise
+man, that which men call learning guarantees no power regarding that area
+of consciousness which brings Illumination--liberation from enchantment, of
+the senses--_mukti_.
+
+Again, in the case of Jacob Boehme, the German mystic, although he left
+tomes of manuscript, it is asserted authoritatively, that he "possessed no
+learning" as that word is understood to mean accumulated knowledge.
+
+In "The Spiritual Maxims" of Brother Lawrence, the Carmelite monk, we find
+this:
+
+"You must realize that you reach God through the heart, and not through the
+mind."
+
+"Stupidity is closer to deliverance than intellect which innovates," is a
+phrase ascribed to a Mohammedan saint, and do not modern theologians report
+with enthusiasm, the unlettered condition of Jesus?
+
+In the Orient, the would-be initiate shuts out the voice of the world, that
+he may know the heart of the world. Many, very many, are the years of
+isolation and preparation which such an earnest one accepts in order that
+he may attain to that state of supra-consciousness in which "nothing is
+hidden that shall not be revealed" to his clarified vision.
+
+In the inner temples throughout Japan, for example, there are persons who
+have not only attained this state of consciousness, but who have also
+retained it, to such a degree and to such an extent, that no event of
+cosmic import may occur in any part of the world, without these illumined
+ones instantly becoming aware of its happening, and indeed, this knowledge
+is possessed by them _before_ the event has taken place in the external
+world, since their consciousness is not limited to time, space, or place
+(relative terms only), but is cosmic, or universal.
+
+This power is not comparable with what Occidental Psychism knows as
+"clairvoyance," or "spirit communication."
+
+The state of consciousness is wholly unlike anything which modern
+spiritualism reports in its phenomena. Far from being in any degree a
+suspension of consciousness as is what is known as mediumship, this power
+partakes of the quality of omniscience. It harmonizes with and blends into
+all the various degrees and qualities of consciousness in the cosmos, and
+becomes "at-one" with the universal heart-throb.
+
+A Zen student priest was once discovered lying face downward on the grass
+of the hill outside the temple; his limbs were rigid, and not a pulse
+throbbed in his tense and immovable form. He was allowed to remain
+undisturbed as long as he wished. When at length he stood up, his face wore
+an expression of terrible anguish. It seemed to have grown old. His _guru_
+stood beside him and gently asked: "What did you, my son?"
+
+"O, my Master," cried out the youth, "I have heard and felt all the burdens
+of the world. I know how the mother feels when she looks upon her starving
+babe. I have heard the cry of the hunted things in the woods; I have felt
+the horror of fear; I have borne the lashes and the stripes of the convict;
+I have entered the heart of the outcast and the shame-stricken; I have been
+old and unloved and I have sought refuge in self-destruction; I have lived
+a thousand lives of sorrow and strife and of fear, and O, my Master, I
+would that I could efface this anguish from the heart of the world."
+
+The _guru_ looked in wonder upon the young priest and he said, "It is well,
+my son. Soon thou shalt know that the burden is lifted."
+
+Great compassion, the attribute of the Lord Buddha, was the key which
+opened to this young student priest, the door of _mukti_, and although his
+compassion was not less, after he had entered into that blissful
+realization, yet so filled did he become with a sense of bliss and
+inexpressible realization of eternal love, that all consciousness of sorrow
+was soon wiped out.
+
+This condition of effacement of all identity, as it were, with sorrow, sin,
+and death, seems inseparable from the attainment of liberation, and has
+been testified to by all who have recorded their emotions in reaching this
+state of consciousness. In other respects, the acquisition of this
+supra-consciousness varies greatly with the initiate.
+
+In all instances, there is also an overwhelming conviction of the
+transitory character of the external world, and the emptiness of all
+man-bestowed honors and riches.
+
+A story is told of the Mohammedan saint Fudail Ibn Tyad, which well
+illustrates this. The Caliph Harun-al-Rashid, learning of the extreme
+simplicity and asceticism of his life exclaimed, "O, Saint, how great is
+thy self-abnegation."
+
+To which the saint made answer: "Thine is greater." "Thou dost but jest,"
+said the Caliph in wonderment. "Nay, not so, great Caliph," replied the
+saint. "I do but make abnegation of this world which is transitory, and
+thou makest abnegation of the next which will last forever."
+
+However, the phrase, "self-abnegation," predicates the concept of
+sacrifice; the giving up of something much to be desired, while, as a
+matter of truth, there arises in the consciousness of the Illumined One, a
+natural contempt for the "baubles" of externality; therefore there is no
+sacrifice. Nothing is given up. On the contrary, the gain is infinitely
+great.
+
+Manikyavasayar, one of the great Tamil saints of Southern India, addressed
+a gathering of disciples thus:
+
+"Why go about sucking from each flower, the droplet of honey, when the
+heavy mass of pure and sweet honey is available?" By which he questioned
+why they sought with such eagerness the paltry pleasures of this world,
+when the state of cosmic consciousness might be attained.
+
+The thought of India, is however, one of ceaseless repudiation of all that
+is external, and the Hindu conception of _mukti_, or cosmic consciousness,
+differs in many respects from that reported by the Illumined in other
+countries, even while all reports have many emotions in common.
+
+Again we find that reports of the cosmic influx, differ with the century in
+which the Illumined one lived. This may be accounted for in the fact that
+an experience so essentially spiritual can not be accurately expressed in
+terms of sense consciousness.
+
+Far different from the Hindu idea, for example, is the report of a woman
+who lived in Japan in the early part of the nineteenth century. This woman
+was very poor and obscure, making her frugal living by braiding mats. So
+intense was her consciousness of unity with all that is, that on seeing a
+flower growing by the wayside, she would "enter into its spirit," as she
+said, with an ecstacy of enjoyment, that would cause her to become
+momentarily entranced.
+
+She was known to the country people around her as _Sho-Nin_, meaning
+literally "above man in consciousness."
+
+It is said that the wild animals of the wood, were wont to come to her
+door, and she talked to them, as though they were humans. An injured hare
+came limping to her door in the early morning hours and "spoke" to her.
+
+Upon which, she arose and dressed, and opened the door of her dwelling with
+words of greeting, as she would use to a neighbor.
+
+She washed the soil from the injured foot, and "loved" it back to
+wholeness, so that when the hare departed there was no trace of injury.
+
+She declared that she spoke to and was answered by, the birds and the
+flowers, and the animals, just as she was by persons.
+
+Indeed, among the high priests of the Jains, and the Zens (sects which may
+be classed as highly developed Occultists), entering into animal
+consciousness, is a power possessed by all initiates.
+
+Passing along a highway near a Zen temple, the driver of a cart was stopped
+by a priest, who gently said: "My good man, with some of the money you have
+in your purse please buy your faithful horse a bucket of oats. He tells me
+he has been so long fed on rice straw that he is despondent."
+
+To the Occidental mind this will doubtless appear to be the result of keen
+observation, the priest being able to see from the appearance of the animal
+that he was fed on straw. They will believe, perhaps, that the priest
+expressed his observations in the manner described to more fully impress
+the driver, but this conclusion will be erroneous. The priest, possessing
+the enlarged or all-inclusive consciousness which in the west is termed
+"cosmic," actually did speak to the horse.
+
+Nor is this fact one which the western mind should be unable to follow.
+Science proves the fact of consciousness existing in the atoms composing
+even what has been termed _inanimate_ objects. How much more comprehensible
+to our understanding is the consciousness of an animate organism, even
+though this organism be not more complex than the horse.
+
+There is a Buddhist monastery built high on the cliff overlooking the Japan
+Inland sea, which is called a "life-saving" monastery.
+
+The priests who preside over this temple, possess the power of extending
+their consciousness over many miles of sea, and on a vibration attuned to a
+pitch above the sound of wind and wave, so that they can hear a call of
+distress from fishermen who need their help.
+
+This fact being admitted, might be accounted for by the uninitiated, as a
+wonderfully "trained ear," which by cultivation and long practice detects
+sounds at a seemingly miraculous distance.
+
+But the priests know how many are in a wrecked boat, and can describe them,
+and "converse" with them, although the fishermen are not aware that they
+have "talked" to the priest.
+
+Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the latest incarnation of God in India, and
+the master to whom the late Swami Vivekananda gives such high praise and
+devotion, lived almost wholly in that exalted state of consciousness which
+would appear to be more essentially _spiritual_, than _cosmic_ in the
+strict sense of the latter word, since _cosmic_ should certainly imply
+all-inclusiveness, rather than wholly _spiritual_ (spiritual being here
+used as an extremely high vibration of the cosmos).
+
+We learn that Sri Ramakrishna was a man comparatively unlettered, and yet
+his insight was so marvelous, his consciousness so exalted that the most
+learned pundits honored and respected him as one who had attained unto the
+goal of all effort--liberation, _mukti_, while to many persons throughout
+India to-day, and indeed throughout the whole world, he is looked upon as
+an incarnation of Krishna.
+
+It is related of Sri Ramakrishna that his yearning for Truth (his mother,
+he called it), was so great that he finally became unfit to conduct
+services in the temple, and retired to a little wood near by. Here he
+seemed to be lost in concentration upon the one thought, to such an extent
+that had it not been for devoted attendants, who actually put food into his
+mouth, the sage would have starved to death. He had so completely lost all
+thought of himself and his surroundings that he could not tell when the day
+dawned or when the night fell. So terrible was his yearning for the voice
+of Truth that when day after day passed and the light he longed for had not
+come to him he would weep in agony.
+
+Nor could any words or argument dissuade him from his purpose.
+
+He once said to Swami Vivekananda:
+
+"My son, suppose there is a bag of gold in yonder room, and a robber is in
+the next room. Do you think that robber can sleep? He cannot. His mind will
+be always thinking how he can enter that room and obtain possession of
+that gold. Do you think, then, that a man firmly persuaded that there is a
+reality behind all these appearances, that there is a God, that there is
+One who never dies, One who is Infinite Bliss, a bliss compared with which
+these pleasures of the senses are simply playthings,--can rest contented
+without struggling to attain it? No, he will become mad with longing."
+
+At length, after almost twelve years unceasing effort, and undivided
+purpose Sri Ramakrishna was rewarded with what has been described as "a
+torrent of spiritual light, deluging his mind and giving him peace."
+
+This wonderful insight he displayed in all the after years of his earthly
+mission, and he not only attained glimpses of the cosmic conscious state,
+but he also retained the Illumination, and the power to impart to a great
+degree, the realization of that state of being which he himself possessed.
+
+Like the Lord Buddha, this Indian sage also describes his experience as
+accompanied by "unbounded light." Speaking of this strange and overpowering
+sense of being immersed in light, Sri Ramakrishna described it thus: "The
+living light to which the earnest devotee is drawn doth not burn. It is
+like the light coming from a gem, shining yet soft, cool and soothing. It
+burneth not. It giveth peace and joy."
+
+This effect of great light, is an almost invariable accompaniment of
+supra-consciousness, although there are instances of undoubted cosmic
+consciousness in which the realization has been a more gradual growth,
+rather than a sudden influx, in which the phenomenon of _light_ is not
+greatly marked.
+
+Mohammed is said to have swooned with the "intolerable splendor" of the
+flood of white light which broke upon him, after many days of constant
+prayer and meditation, in the solitude of the cavern outside the gates of
+Mecca.
+
+Similar is the description of the attainment of cosmic consciousness, given
+by the Persian mystics, although it is evident that the Sufis regarded the
+result as reunion with "the other half" of the soul in exile.
+
+The burden of their cry is love, and "union with the beloved" is the
+longed-for goal of all earthly strife and experience.
+
+Whether this reunion be considered from the standpoint of finding the other
+half of the perfect one, as exemplified in the present-day search for the
+soul mate, or whether it be considered in the light of a spiritual merging
+into the One Eternal Absolute is the question of questions.
+
+Certainly the terms used to express this state of spiritual ecstacy are
+words which might readily be applied to lovers united in marriage.
+
+One thing is certain, the Sufis did not personify the Deity, except
+symbolically, and the "beloved one" is impartially referred to as masculine
+or feminine, even as modern thought has come to realize God as
+Father-Mother.
+
+In all mystical writings, we find the conclusion that there is no _one way_
+in which the seeker may find reunion with The Beloved.
+
+"The ways of God are as the number of the souls of men," declare the
+followers of Islam, and "for the love that thou wouldst find demands the
+sacrifice of self to the end that the heart may be filled with the passion
+to stand within the Holy of Holies, in which alone the mysteries of the
+True Beloved can be revealed unto thee," is also a Sufi sentiment, although
+it might also be Christian or Mohammedan, or Vedantan.
+
+Indeed, if the student of Esotericism, searches deeply enough, he will find
+a surprising unity of sentiment, and even of expression, in all the variety
+of religions and philosophies, including Christianity.
+
+It has been said that the chief difference between the message of Jesus
+and those of the holy men of other races, and times, lies in the fact that
+Jesus, more than his predecessors, emphasized the importance of love. But
+consider the following lines from Jami, the Persian mystic:
+
+  "Gaze, till gazing out of gazing
+  Grew to BEING HER I gazed on,
+  She and I no more, but in one
+  Undivided Being blended.
+  All that is not One must ever
+  Suffer with the wound of absence;
+  And whoever in Love's city
+  Enters, finds but room for one
+  And but in Oneness, union."
+
+These lines express that religious ecstacy which results from spiritual
+aspiration, or they express the union of the individual soul with its mate
+according to the viewpoint. In any event, they are an excellent description
+of the realization of that much-to-be-desired consciousness which is
+fittingly described in Occidental phraseology as "cosmic consciousness."
+Whether this realization is the result of union with the soul's "other
+half," or whether it is an impersonal reunion with the Causeless Cause, The
+Absolute, from which we are earth wanderers, is not the direct purpose of
+this volume to answer, although the question will be answered, and that
+soon.
+
+From whence and by whom we are not prepared to say, but the "signs and
+portents" which precede the solution of this problem have already made
+their appearance.
+
+Christian students of the Persian mystics, take exception to statements
+like the above, and regard them as "erotic," rather than spiritual.
+
+Mahmud Shabistari employs the following symbolism, but unquestionably seeks
+to express the same emotion:
+
+  "Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart,
+  Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
+  When you depart out, he will enter in,
+  In you, void of your_self_, will he display his beauty."
+
+The "Song of Solomon" is in a similar key, and whether the wise king
+referred to that state of _samadhi_ which accompanies certain experiences
+of cosmic consciousness, or whether he was reciting love-lyrics, must be a
+moot question.
+
+The personal note in the famous "song" has been accounted for by many
+commentators, on the grounds that Solomon had only partial glimpses of the
+supra-conscious state, and that, in other words, he frequently "backslid"
+from divine contemplation, and allowed his yearning for the state of
+liberation, to express itself in love of woman.
+
+An attribute of the possession of cosmic consciousness is wisdom, and this
+Solomon is said to have possessed far beyond his contemporaries, and to a
+degree incompatible with his years. It is said that he built and
+consecrated a "temple for the Lord," and that, as a result of his extreme
+piety and devotion to God, he was vouchsafed a vision of God.
+
+As these reports have come to us through many stages of church history and
+as Solomon lived many centuries before the birth of Jesus, it seems hardly
+fitting to ascribe the raptures of Solomon as typifying the love of the
+Church (the bride) for Christ (the bridegroom).
+
+Rather, it is easier to believe, the wisdom of the king argues a degree of
+consciousness far beyond that of the self-conscious man, and he rose to the
+quality of spiritual realization, expressing itself in a love and longing
+for that soul communion which may be construed as quite personal, referring
+to a personal, though doubtless non-corporeal union with his spiritual
+complement.
+
+Although the pronoun "he" is used, signifying that Solomon's longing was
+what theology terms "spiritual" and consequently impersonal, meaning God
+The Absolute, yet we suggest that the use of the masculine pronoun may be
+due entirely to the translators and commentators (of whom there have been
+many), and that, in their zeal to reconcile the song with the
+ecclesiastical ideas of spirituality, the gender of the pronoun has been
+changed. We submit that the idea is more than possible, and indeed in view
+of the avowed predilections of the ancient king and sage, it is highly
+probable.
+
+He sings:
+
+  "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth
+  For his love is better than wine."
+
+Again he cries:
+
+"Behold thou art fair my love, behold thou art fair, thou _hast dove's
+eyes_."
+
+The realization of _mukti_, i.e., the power of the _atman_ to transcend the
+physical, is thus expressed by Solomon, clearly indicating that he had
+found liberation:
+
+"My beloved spoke and said unto me, 'Rise up my love my fair one, and come
+away. For lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone.
+
+"'The flowers appear upon the earth; the time of singing of birds has come,
+and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
+
+"'The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender
+grapes gives a goodly smell. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.'"
+
+It is assumed that these lines do not refer to a personal hegira, but
+rather to the act of withdrawing the Self from the things of the outer
+life, and fixing it in contemplation upon the larger life, the
+supra-conscious life, but there is no reason to doubt that they may refer
+to a longing to commune with the beautiful and tender things of nature.
+
+Another point to be noted is that in the spring and early summer it is with
+difficulty that the mind can be made to remain fixed upon the petty details
+of everyday business life. The awakening of the earth from the long cold
+sleep of winter is typical of the awakening of the mind from its hypnotisms
+of external consciousness.
+
+Instinctively, there arises a realization of the divinity of creative
+activity, and the mind soars up to the higher vibrations and awakes to the
+real purpose of life, more or less fully, according to individual
+development.
+
+This has given rise to the assumption, predicated by some writers on cosmic
+consciousness, that this state of consciousness is attained in the early
+summer months, and the instances cited would seem to corroborate this
+assumption.
+
+But, as a poet has sung, "it is always summer in the soul," so there is no
+specific time, nor age, in which individual cosmic consciousness may be
+attained.
+
+A point which we suggest, and which is verified by the apparent connection
+between the spring months, and the full realization of cosmic
+consciousness, is the point that this phenomenon comes through
+contemplation and desire for love. Whether this love be expressed as the
+awakening of creative life, as in nature's springtime, or whether it be
+expressed as love of the lover for his bride; the dove for his mate; the
+mother for her child, or as the religious devotee for the Lord, the key
+that unlocks the door to illumination of body, soul and spirit, is Love,
+"the maker, the monarch and savior of all," but whether this love in its
+fullness of perfection may be found in that perfect spiritual mating, which
+we see exemplified in the tender, but ardent mating of the dove (the symbol
+of Purity and Peace), or whether it means spiritual union with the Absolute
+is not conclusive.
+
+The mystery of Seraphita, Balzac's wonderful creation, is an evidence that
+Balzac had glimpses of that perfect union, which gives rise to the
+experience called cosmic consciousness.
+
+It is well to remember that in every instance of cosmic consciousness, the
+person experiencing this state, finds it practically impossible to fully
+describe the state, or its exact significance.
+
+Therefore, when these efforts have been made, we must expect to find the
+description colored very materially by the habit of _thought_, of the
+person having the experience.
+
+Balzac was essentially religious, but he was also extremely suggestible,
+and, until very recently, Theology and Religion were supposed to be
+synonymous, or at least to walk hand in hand. Balzac's early training and
+his environment, as well as the thought of the times in which he lived,
+were calculated to inspire in him the fallacious belief that God would have
+us renounce the love of our fellow beings, for love of Him.
+
+Balzac makes "Louis Lambert" renounce his great passion for Pauline, and
+seems to suggest that this renunciation led to the subsequent realization
+of cosmic consciousness, which he unquestionably experienced.
+
+Nor is it possible to say that it did not, since renunciation of the lower
+must inevitably lead to the higher, and we give up the lesser only that we
+may enjoy the greater.
+
+In "Seraphita" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that
+spiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result
+of a perfect and complete "mating," between the sexes, on the spiritual
+plane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also
+elsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or
+God.
+
+The former view is individual, while the latter is impersonal, and may, or
+may not, involve absorption of individual consciousness.
+
+In subsequent chapters we shall again refer to Balzac's Illumination as
+expressed in his writings, and will now take up the question of man's
+relation to the universe, as it appears in the light of cosmic
+consciousness, or liberation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND TO HIS FELLOW-MEN
+
+
+The riddle of the Sphinx is no riddle at all. The strange figure, the lower
+part animal; the upper part human; and the sprouting wings epitomize the
+growth and development of man from the animal, or physical (carnal),
+consciousness to the soul consciousness, represented by woman's head and
+breast, to the supra-conscious, winged god.
+
+No higher conception of life has ever emanated from any source, than the
+concept of man developed to a state of perfection represented by wings (a
+symbol of freedom). These winged humans are sometimes called angels and
+sometimes gods, although the words may not be synonymous.
+
+The point is, that no theory of life and its purposes seems more general or
+more unescapable than that of man's growth from sin (limitations) to
+god-hood--freedom.
+
+Whether this consummation is brought about through an unbroken chain of
+upward tendencies from the lowest forms of life to the highest; or whether
+it is symbolized by the old theologic idea of man's fall from godhood to
+sin, the fact remains that we know no other ideal than that represented by
+perfected man; and we know no lower idea than that of man still in the
+animal stage of consciousness.
+
+Artists, painters, sculptors, wishing to depict the beauty of spiritual
+things, must still use the human idea for a model--refined, spiritualized,
+supra-human, but still man.
+
+It is a truism that man epitomizes the universe. Therefore, the law of
+growth, which science names evolution, may be studied and applied with
+equal precision and accuracy to the individual; to a body of individuals
+called a nation; and to worlds, or planets.
+
+The evolution of an individual is accomplished when he has learned through
+the various avenues of experience, the fact of his own godhood; and when he
+has established his union with that indescribable spiritual essence which
+is called Om; God; Nirvana; Samadhi; Brahm; Kami; Allah; and the Absolute.
+
+A Japanese term is _Dai Zikaku_. The Zen sect of Japanese Buddhists say
+_Daigo Tettei_, and one who has attained to this superior phase of
+consciousness is called Sho-Nin, meaning literally "above man."
+
+Emerson, the great American seer, expressed this Nameless One, as The
+Oversoul, and Herbert Spencer, the intellectual giant of England, used the
+term Universal Energy.
+
+Emerson was a seer; Spencer was a scientist, which word, until recently,
+was a synonym for materialist.
+
+But what are words?
+
+Mere symbols of consciousness, and subject to change and evolvement, as
+man's consciousness evolves. The student of truth will recognize in these
+different words, exactly the same meaning. The "eternal energy from which
+all things proceed" is a phrase identical with "The Oversoul," or "The
+Absolute," from which all manifestation comes.
+
+Man's evolution, then, is an evolution in consciousness, from the
+subjective _awareness_ of the monad to a realization of the entire cosmos.
+
+Each phase of life is a specific degree of consciousness and each
+successive degree brings the individual nearer to the realization of the
+_sum_ of all degrees of consciousness, into godhood--the highest degree
+which we can conceive.
+
+Such, briefly, is a statement of that phenomenon which is attracting the
+attention of occidental students of psychology, and which has been
+fittingly termed "the attainment of cosmic consciousness."
+
+The phrase expresses a degree of consciousness which includes the entire
+cosmos--not only this planet called earth, and everything thereon, but also
+the spheres of the Constellation.
+
+Not that this degree of consciousness carries with it the power to express
+in words, that which it is. In fact, the one who has had this marvelous
+awakening, cannot adequately describe, or even _retain_, a full
+comprehension of what it signifies.
+
+All-inclusive knowledge would indeed, preclude the possibility of
+expression. Therefore, even if it were possible to retain in the finite
+mind, the full realization of cosmic consciousness, words could not be
+found in which to express it to others.
+
+Thought is the creator of words, but thought is but the material which the
+mind employs, and cosmic consciousness transcends the mind, engulfs the
+soul, and reaches to the trackless areas of Spirit.
+
+It may be doubted if any one may retain a full realization of cosmic
+consciousness, and remain in the physical body.
+
+Great and wonderful as have been the experiences of those who have sought
+to relate their sensations, it is probable that these flashes of insight
+have been in the nature of cosmic _perception_, and have lacked full
+realization.
+
+Of those who have had glimpses of that larger area of consciousness which
+includes an awareness of eternal unity with the cosmos, there are, we
+believe, many more than students of the subject have any idea of.
+
+This century marks a distinct epoch in what is called evolution.
+
+The end of a _kalpa_, or cycle of manifestation, is symbolized by the
+presence on a planet of many avatars, masters, and angels.
+
+By their very presence these enlightened ones arouse in all who are ready
+for the experience a glimpse of that state of being to which all souls are
+destined, and to which all shall ultimately attain.
+
+A time when "gods shall walk the earth" is a prophecy which all nations
+have heard and looked forward to.
+
+That time is now. We see the effect of their presence in Peace Conferences;
+in abolition of child labor; in prison reform; in the amalgamation of the
+races; in attempts at social equality; in National Eugenic Societies, and
+above all, as we have before stated, in the Emancipation of Woman. In fact,
+it is seen in all the various ways in which the higher consciousness finds
+expression.
+
+One of the characteristic signs of this awakening, the Millenium Dawn, as
+it has been named, lies in a very general optimism shining through the
+mists of doubt and unrest and inexpressible desire, which accompany the
+new birth in consciousness.
+
+Amid the seeming chaos of present day conditions is it not easy to discern
+the coming of that dawn of which all great ones of earth have foretold--a
+time when "the earth shall be made a fit habitation for the gods"?
+
+"The heavens" is a term employed to specify the Constellation which is
+composed of planets and stars, but we use the term "Heaven" also to mean a
+state of happiness and bliss attainable through certain methods, a
+consideration of which we will take up later.
+
+The immediate point is that this planet is being prepared for a position in
+the solar system consistent with that which is the abode of the
+gods--Heaven.
+
+This proposition is made in its literal meaning. Corroborative of this
+statement, which is consistent with all prophecies, is the information
+recently given to the world, by Camille Flammarion, and other great
+astronomers, that "the earth is changing its position in the heavens at an
+astonishing rate." The idea that "there shall be no night there," is
+foreshadowed by the estimate that this change will give to the earth a
+perpetual and uniform light, and heat.
+
+The New Thought preachment of physical immortality is but a faint and
+imperfect perception of this time, when "there shall be no death," because
+the animal man, subject to change, shall give place to the changeless,
+deathless, spiritual man; not through cataclysms, and destruction, but
+through the natural birth into a higher consciousness.
+
+The Occidental mind is easily affrighted by a name. Perhaps we should not
+specify the Occidental mind, but rather the mind of man among all races is
+easily put to sleep by the hypnotism of a word.
+
+The word Pantheism is a bugaboo to the Occidentalist. He fears the
+destruction of the Monistic faith, if he admits that man is in essence a
+god, and that therefore there are many gods in the one God, even as there
+are many members to the one physical organism.
+
+Nevertheless all literature, whether sacred or profane, teaches the
+attainment of godhood by Man. This can not mean other than the attainment
+of _realization_ of godhood, by the individual and the _retention_ of this
+realization to the end that reincarnation shall cease and identity with the
+cosmic, principle, be established, beyond further loss, or doubt, or
+strife, or death.
+
+This is what it means to attain to cosmic consciousness. It is inclusive
+consciousness. It is not absorption into the vast unknown, in the sense of
+annihilation of identity. It is consciousness _plus_, not minus.
+
+An ancient writing says:
+
+"And thou shalt awake as from a long dream. Thou shalt be like the perfume
+arising from the flower in which it has been so long enclosed. And thou
+wilt float above the opened flower. And thou wilt say 'There is time before
+me in eternity.'"
+
+There is nothing in the testimony of those who have described, as best they
+could, their emotions upon attainment of this consciousness, which would
+argue the absorption of the individual soul into The Absolute.
+
+There is no testimony to argue that the attainment of cosmic consciousness,
+carries with it anything approaching annihilation of _sentiency_.
+
+Rather it would seem to testify to an acceleration of all the higher
+faculties.
+
+That this would be a more apt interpretation may be seen by comparing the
+different reports of those experiencing the phenomenon of Illumination.
+
+Nevertheless there has been much controversy regarding the meaning of the
+terms nirvana; samadhi; dai zikaku, etc.--words expressing the condition
+which we are considering under the phrase cosmic consciousness.
+
+
+WHAT IS NIRVANA?
+
+Let us consider briefly, what is meant by Nirvana, and see if it is not
+highly probable that the word describes the state of consciousness which
+we are considering, referring later on to the question, and its
+interpretation by the various schools of religion and philosophy.
+
+It is apparent that the most learned sages of the Orient fail to agree as
+to the exact meaning of Nirvana. Occidental writers and leaders of the
+Theosophical philosophy, differ somewhat as to its import, but at the same
+time we find enough unity on this point to make it evident that the state
+of Nirvana is a desirable attainment--the goal of the religious enthusiast.
+
+Going back for a moment, to a consideration of the earliest recorded
+religion of Japan, we find that Sintoism means literally "the way of the
+gods," meaning the way in which men who have become god-like, found the
+path that led thereunto, but as to exactly what conditions are represented
+by godhood, how indeed, is it possible for man to _know_, much less to
+express?
+
+Since we are conscious of a divine and irresistible urge toward the
+attainment of this state of being, it is hardly consistent with what we
+know of merely _human_ nature, that the way lies in the direction of loss
+of identity, or in other words, in what is popularly comprehended as
+_absorption_. That this idea prevails in many Oriental sects of Buddhism
+and Vedanta we are aware, but we are confident that this idea is erroneous,
+and comes from the fact that it is impossible to describe the condition of
+consciousness enjoyed by the initiate into Nirvana, which term we believe,
+is identical, or at least comparable with cosmic consciousness.
+
+The very fact that external life represents so universal a struggle for
+attainment of this state of being, or higher consciousness, indicates at
+least, even if it does not actually _guarantee_ a fuller, deeper, more
+complete state of consciousness than hitherto enjoyed, rather than an
+absorption or annihilation of any of that dearly bought consciousness which
+distinguishes the self from its environment, and which says with conviction
+"I am."
+
+It is admitted that those who have experienced liberation, illumination,
+_mukti_, have reported their sensations with such relative vagueness and
+with such apparent variance of conclusion as regards the _meaning_ of the
+experience that the reader is left to his own interpretation of the
+character of that state of being, other than a general uniformity of
+description.
+
+Referring to the pleasure which the lower nature feels under certain
+conditions, the late Swami Vivekananda says:
+
+"The whole idea of this nature is to make the soul know that it is entirely
+separate from nature and when the soul knows this, nature has no more
+attraction for it. But the whole of nature vanishes only for that man who
+has become free. There will always remain an infinite number of others for
+whom nature will go on working."
+
+But did Vivekananda employ the phrase "nature has no more attraction for
+him," to describe the sensation of unappreciativeness of the wonders of the
+natural world? We think not. Rather the gentle-hearted sage meant to report
+the fact that the soul is no longer _held in bondage_ to the external
+world, when it has once attained supra-consciousness.
+
+If this expression referred to the pleasure the true lover of nature feels
+in the out-of-doors, he might well say "I trust that I shall never attain
+to that state of consciousness. Or if attainment be compulsory, then shall
+I prolong the time of accomplishment as long as possible."
+
+And who would blame him? Why should we strive for the attainment of a state
+of being described so unattractively as to give us the impression of entire
+_loss_ of so enjoyable and unselfish a sensation as love of nature?
+
+The Vedantic idea, according to interpreted translations is that out of The
+Absolute, the All (Om), we _come_, and therefore back to it we go, being
+now in our present state of consciousness, en route, as it were to return.
+
+But returning to _what_? That is the unanswerable problem of all religions;
+all philosophies; all science. If we _return_ to a void, such as some
+interpreters of the Vedas declare, then surely this urge within mankind
+toward this annihilatory state would hardly be expected. It would be
+inconsistent with that instinct of self-preservation which we are told is
+the first law of nature.
+
+Compared to this Vedantic concept of the Absolute, the Christian's simple,
+and very empirical ideal of eternal happiness is preferable.
+
+To walk streets paved with gold and play a harp incessantly while chanting
+doleful praises to a Deity who ought to become wearied of the never-ceasing
+adulation, would still be a more desirable goal of our strife, than that so
+inaccurately and unattractively described by many students of Oriental
+religions and philosophies as the state _nirvana_, or _samadhi_.
+
+Again quoting from Vivekananda's Raja Yoga:
+
+"There are not wanting persons who think that this manifest state (our
+present existence) is the highest state of man. Thinkers of great caliber
+are of the opinion that we are manifested specimens of undifferentiated
+Being, and this differentiated state is _higher than the Absolute_."
+
+Although as Vivekananda says there are thinkers who make this claim, the
+idea does not find ready acceptance among theologians, either Eastern, or
+Western. Neither do philosophers, as a general thing incline to adopt this
+view. The reason for this general disinclination is not difficult of
+discovery. It is due to the present state of man on this planet.
+
+If man, as we see and know mankind, is the highest state of Being (not
+merely of manifestation, but of Being) "then," they say, "we have nothing
+to hope for."
+
+But have we not? May we not hope that man will _manifest_, on this planet a
+fuller realization, of that which he _is_ in _Being_, and that, far from
+dissolving what consciousness he has, he will but _plus_ this consciousness
+by a larger--an all-embracing consciousness that shall make earth a fit
+habitation for god-like men?
+
+In Vivekananda's Raja Yoga we find the following:
+
+"There was an old solution that man, after death, remained the same; that
+all his good sides, minus his evil sides, remained forever. Logically
+stated, this means that man's goal is the world; this world meaning earth
+carried to a state higher and with elimination of its evils is the state
+they call heaven. This theory, on the face of it, is absurd and puerile
+because it cannot be. There cannot be good without evil, or evil without
+good. To live in a world where there is all good and no evil, is what
+Sanskrit logicians call a 'dream in the air.'"
+
+It is not necessary to argue here that there is no such thing as positive
+evil.
+
+St. Paul said: "I know and am persuaded that nothing is unclean of itself;
+save that to him who accounteth anything to be unclean, to him it is
+unclean."
+
+And again we are assured that "there is nothing good or bad, but thinking
+makes it so;" which means that evil has no more foundation in reality than
+has thought, and thought is ever-changing; transitory. Evil therefore may
+be entirely eliminated by thought, since it is created by thought.
+
+That there is a condition of mankind which has been alluded to as "evil" is
+self-evident. The term has been employed to describe a condition of either
+an individual, or a society, or a nation or a race, wherein there is in
+harmony; disease; unhappiness. Anything that makes for suffering on any
+plane of consciousness, may be termed "evil" as here used.
+
+Let us consider for a moment if it be illogical to imagine a world in which
+this in harmony has been eliminated. Imagine a family in which all the
+members radiate love and unselfish consideration. Add to this, or we may
+say complementary to this, we have perfect health and prosperity; and over
+and above all we have a conviction of immortality, eliminating doubt and
+fear and worry as to future sorrows or partings, with no knowledge that
+there are others in the world suffering.
+
+Do we not find it quite possible, to say the least, and even desirable, to
+live in such a family, particularly if we had previously acquired a
+knowledge of that which is evil and that which is good--merely terms used
+to describe limited, or enlarged consciousness.
+
+If we admit the desirability of living in such a family, why not in such a
+world? "Logically stated," says the Hindu swami, "this means that man's
+goal is this world (earth planet); carried to a state higher and with the
+elimination of its evils, this world is the state (place) they call
+heaven."
+
+Again we must question. Why not?
+
+This planet we call earth, is a great and marvelous work, whether it be the
+work of an abstract God, or whether it be the work of the god in Man.
+
+And whether this earth be the gift of an abstract God, or whether it be
+the generating bed of the life now upon it, the fact remains that we have
+no business to despise the gift, or the work of self-generation. Our
+business is to enhance its beauties and eliminate its ugliness. Why have we
+prayed that the will of God which is Love, "be done on earth as it is in
+the heavens," if we despise the planet and hope to leave it?
+
+Although the general impression given in all religious systems is that
+the perfected soul leaves this earth, yet there is nothing in any of them
+to prove that it does so, or if it has hitherto, that it shall continue so
+to do. We have no right to assume that the outer life--the external,
+manifested life which we perceive with our physical senses, is all there is
+to this earth and that when we leave this outer life, we go to some other
+_place_. The _invisible_ life on this planet is unquestionably far greater
+than the _visible_ but both visible and invisible doubtless belong to the
+planet earth.
+
+The Absolute, presumably occupies all space, and therefore it may as
+reasonably be postulated that this state of Nirvana or Samadhi, may be
+entered within the area of this planet's vibrations, as in that of the
+other planets. The finite mind cannot conceive of a state of being apart
+from motion, space or time, even though these concepts are crude in their
+relation to the state of consciousness to which the sum of all
+consciousness is tending, whether the individual would, or not.
+
+We speak of "the heavens" when we refer to the immeasurable, and little
+known region of the solar system, and we use the same term when we refer to
+a state of being in which the perfected soul of man will finally enter. And
+this term implies that when we are thus in heaven, we are _with_ God, if
+not _absorbed into_ God.
+
+Jesus, the master, taught the coming of the kingdom of God _on earth_ and
+urged mankind to _pray_ for its coming, asking that the will of God
+(or gods) be done on earth as it is in the heavens, from which it is not
+illogical to infer that the earth itself, as a planet, is not outside the
+pale of that blissful state which we ascribe to God, and which, at the same
+time, we expect to enter without being swallowed up in the sense that we
+lose that consciousness which cognizes itself as an eternal verity.
+
+If then, the "heavens" as applied to the planets revolving above the earth
+in the solar system, and "Heaven" as a term used to describe a state of
+happiness, bliss, samadhi, nirvana, or "life with God," be synonymous it
+may reasonably be inferred that in the solar system are planets upon which
+live sentient beings, in a state to which we on earth, are seeking to
+attain; a state wherein so-called evil has been eliminated and the good
+retained.
+
+In fact, we may see with none too prophetic eyes the elimination of evil
+right here in the visible. All who have attained a glimpse of Illumination
+have reported the loss of the "sense of sin and death," and have retained
+this feeling of security and "all-is-well-ness" as long as they have lived
+thereafter.
+
+From the old conception of "evil" as a positive, opposing and independent
+force, modern thought, in all its branches, namely science; religion;
+social evolution, and philosophy, has arrived at the conclusion that evil
+is not a power or force in and of itself, but that it is evidence of a
+limited degree of consciousness which sees only one side of a subject--only
+a limited area of an infinitely wide and varied manifestation of the one
+supreme consciousness. Therefore, it is, that evil per se, does not exist
+as power, but that it is the effect of a misapplication of power.
+
+The cure then, for this state of Relativity, is found logically enough, in
+an extension of individual consciousness.
+
+That this idea is logical may be deduced from the fact that as the mind
+expands, through the various channels of learning; observation; contact
+with each other, and by the many roads of Experience, altruism becomes more
+general. Almost every one readily admits that the world is "growing
+better," as they express it.
+
+This means that the individual consciousness is becoming broadened,
+deepened, enlarged; and this enlargement makes it possible to show that
+the happiness of each one, means the happiness of all, and that no one
+human life can reach the goal of freedom and eternal life (_mukti_, which
+can mean nothing less than godhood) unless he does so by some one of the
+many paths of selflessness.
+
+Up through the perilous paths and the devious ways of brute consciousness
+toward a more or less perfect perception of that blissful state which the
+Illumined have sought to describe, each individual has come to his present
+state; and it is only by virtue of the ability to look back over the path,
+and to look onward a little into relative futurity, that each may record
+the fact of his gain in consciousness, and what this gain means to the
+future of this earth.
+
+But who is there who cannot see that each step in attainment of
+consciousness brings with it a corresponding freedom from suffering?
+
+The planet itself does not make us suffer. The latest discoveries of
+astronomers indicate that as the standard of morality (using the term
+"morality" in its true sense), becomes higher, the position of the earth
+itself becomes changed, in its relation to the solar system.
+
+In this way, it is expected that a uniform temperature will prevail all
+over the earth's surface; and with the cessation of war, and of
+competition (which is mental warfare) cataclysms, storms, and earthquakes
+will cease. When we come, as we will, in succeeding chapters of this book,
+to a review of the experiences of those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness (mukti) we will find that, in each instance, there has come
+a realization of the _nothingness_ of sin and consequent suffering.
+
+The trouble then, is not with the earth as a planet, but with the lack of
+consciousness of earth's inhabitants, which lack makes possible all the
+suffering which afflicts human life.
+
+Those who have attained to the state of cosmic consciousness in both
+Occidental and Oriental instances of this perception, have reported an
+abiding sense of rest and peace and satisfaction--a condition which we
+associate with accepted ideals of heaven as taught in Occidental creeds
+and among some schools of Oriental philosophers, and sects of religious
+worship.
+
+There is a far greater unity of idea between the Oriental and the
+Occidental methods and systems, as to the _goal_ of ultimate attainment
+than is generally believed, or understood.
+
+The highest expression of Japanese Buddhism differs from Hindu Buddhism and
+from Vedanta, and the many other forms of Hindu philosophy and religion, in
+the same way that the Japanese, as a nation, differ from their Hindu
+brothers.
+
+The Japanese emphasize, more than do the Hindus, the preservation of the
+nation, and to this end, they are called more "practical" minded, but with
+the Japanese, as with all the Orientals, we find an intense contempt for
+any one who would seek to preserve his physical existence, or hesitate at
+any personal sacrifice.
+
+This unwritten code has its origin, as have all Oriental traditions and
+concepts, in the teachings of religious systems. According to Oriental
+ethics, the person is very low in the scale of consciousness, when he
+considers his physical body as of comparative consequence, when the
+question of expediency, or of the welfare of his country, is in the
+balance.
+
+Nevertheless, Japan has offered, far more than has India, a fertile field
+for the growth of materialism, owing to the fact that underlying the
+apparent observance of and loyalty to, religious practices, the Japanese
+temperament inclines to a practical application of the wisdom attained
+through religious instruction.
+
+Therefore we find among the Illumined Ones of Japanese history, sages who
+taught the attainment of liberation through paths which are not generally
+accepted by interpreters of Hinduism.
+
+For example, among the orthodox Sintoists, (the original religion of the
+Japanese, before the advent of Buddhism), we find that cleanliness of mind
+and body, was taught as the prime essential to attainment of unity with
+_Kami_, rather than contemplation, meditation and isolation, as with the
+Hindus.
+
+And in the Christian world we have a corresponding admonition in the phrase
+"cleanliness is next to godliness."
+
+Simple as this rule of conduct is, it nevertheless embodies the key to the
+situation, inasmuch as we are assured that "blessed are the pure in heart
+for they shall see God."
+
+Again Jesus told his hearers that they "must become as little children,"
+evidently meaning that they must possess the clean, pure, guileless mind
+of a little child, if they would reach the goal of liberation, from strife;
+death (repeated incarnation); and all so-called "evil."
+
+To this end man is striving, whether by rites and ceremonies of religion;
+by worship; by contemplation; by effort and struggle; by invention; by
+aspiration; by sacrifice; or by whatever path, or device, or system.
+
+What, then is the goal, and how may it be attained?
+
+Before taking up this question, let us go back a little over the history of
+human life and attainment, and trace, briefly, the evolution of
+consciousness, from pre-historic man, to the highest examples of human
+devotion and wisdom, of which, happily, the world affords not a few
+instances.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AREAS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+
+Consciousness may be termed, simply, "the divine spark," which enters into
+every form and phase of manifested life emanating from that one Eternal
+Power which materialists designate as "energy" and which Occultists, both
+Oriental and Occidental, best define as "Aum," God! The Absolute--The
+Divine Mind, and many other terms.
+
+Consciousness, therefore, enters into everything--is the life essence of
+everything.
+
+The materialistic hypothesis formerly predicated the axiom that there were
+two distinct phases of manifestation, namely organic and inorganic.
+
+Organic life was sentient, or conscious, while inorganic life was
+insensate--a structure acted upon from forces outside itself, and dependent
+upon an exterior force for its action.
+
+Other names for this differentiation, would be "matter" and "spirit." The
+point is, that the old materialistic philosophy failed to recognize the
+fact that consciousness, in varying degrees, characterizes all manifested
+life.
+
+This fact every phase of Oriental philosophy recognized, and always has
+recognized. The assumption of the Christian Science devotee, that there is
+anything new in the postulate that "all is spirit," is possible only
+because of his ignorance of Oriental philosophy, as will be seen later on
+in these pages, when we take up the relative comparison between the
+Oriental and the Occidental systems of "salvation."
+
+To resume therefore, we postulate the following recognized axioms of
+Universal Occultism.
+
+All life is sentient or conscious.
+
+All life is from the one source, and therefore contains this "divine
+spark."
+
+All manifestation expresses degrees or phases of consciousness.
+
+The degree of this consciousness fixes the status of the organism, and
+determines its classification, whether it is organic or inorganic; simple,
+or complex.
+
+Every cell, each separate cell, in fact, has its own consciousness--that is
+each cell is a center of this power that we term consciousness; a group of
+cells with this power focalized to a given point, or center, makes an organ
+of consciousness, and so on up the scale through many many degrees of
+complexity of organism, until we come to man.
+
+Webster defines consciousness as "the ability to know ones mental
+operations." But, we do not take this definition in Occultism, for the
+obvious reason, that it is not possible to state arbitrarily whether or
+not, the cell "knows its operations," and since all operations are
+necessarily mental in the final analysis, we assume that there is a phase
+of consciousness below that of cognition of "self," which may be termed
+"the unconscious consciousness," which again is synonymous with the phrase
+"automatic cerebration."
+
+Coming up through the various myriad degrees of sub-conscious life (sub
+being here used as below self consciousness) we arrive at the stage of
+simple consciousness which characterizes the animal kingdom, remembering
+that consciousness in the abstract is not a _condition_, or state of
+environment. It is one of the eternal verities. It _is_ just as Aum _is_.
+
+The attainment of a wider and wider area of consciousness, is but the
+_uncovering_, or the attracting to a central point or to an individual
+organism of _this that is_. Thus consciousness, in the abstract, may say
+of itself "before creation was, I am."
+
+That is what is meant when it is said that God is omnipotent, and
+omniscient.
+
+The difference between mere power, or energy, and consciousness, whether
+considered from the standpoint of the organic or the inorganic kingdom, may
+be likened to the difference between a blind force, and a power that knows
+itself.
+
+Consciousness is practically the great central light that "lighteth every
+man that cometh into the world." Without consciousness, manifestation would
+be darkness. Thus it is said, "the light shineth in darkness and the
+darkness comprehendeth it not." This applies to that tiny spark of divinity
+in which consciousness exists but where there is not realization of its
+divinity.
+
+This fact is not applicable to the inorganic, or the animal kingdoms alone.
+Many men are not conscious of the light that shineth within them, save as
+there is an aggregate of cell consciousness which recognizes its focalized
+power as an organism.
+
+Manifestation then, is the vehicle (carrying character) of universal
+consciousness, and we may logically assume that manifestation is due to
+the necessity of developing individualized entities, who may, through
+successive phases of conscious unfoldment, or uncovering of areas of
+Being, become gods.
+
+The western writers, and indeed, many Oriental seers prefer to put it thus:
+"become fit to dwell with God, in eternal bliss and power."
+
+To dwell with God, must be to become gods. Once more, we must remember that
+only gods are immortal. Souls continue to exist after the physical body has
+been discarded, for the reason that no body in these days, lives as long as
+its psychic counterpart or dweller. But, although the soul continues to
+exist on another plane of note of the _scale of vibration_, it does not
+argue that the identity shall continue eternally, except in such instances,
+as when the soul through numbers of incarnations shall have finally
+accomplished the purpose of its pilgrimage and attained to _mukti_
+(liberation from the law of change and death).
+
+Returning to a consideration of what may be said to constitute certain
+specific phases of consciousness, we will take into consideration the
+phase of consciousness, which we see expressed in the mineral kingdom.
+That there is a distinct and separate character of consciousness thus
+expressed is evident from the fact that there is a law of chemical
+affinity, i.e. attraction and repulsion, which causes different minerals
+to respond, or to refuse to respond, as the case may be, to certain
+conditions or chemical processes, more or less crude in character.
+
+From this to the vegetable kingdom we assume a step in advance, as
+vegetable life measured by complexity and refinement, responds with a
+greater degree of sensitiveness to the laws of evolution, as expressed in
+cultivation, selection and environment.
+
+Even in this phase of manifestation, we find the law of Being, is measured
+by the perfection of species. Evolution of inorganic life, is as real, and
+as much a part of the plan, (or whatever name we choose), as is organic,
+and self-conscious life.
+
+That which is less perfect, measured by the law of beauty and usefulness,
+we find gradually being exterminated. That the earth, as a planet, is
+obeying this cosmic law of evolution from grossness to refinement; from
+crudity to perfection; from the limited to the all-inclusive, is
+indisputable. As the motor power of electricity has become general, we find
+that beasts of burden are fast disappearing from the earth, according to
+the law of the "survival of the fittest," this law, always being subject to
+change. The "fittest" means that which is best fitted to the conditions of
+the time.
+
+Brute force survives among brutes, in the degree that it is strong or weak;
+coming out of that expression of law into the mental areas of
+consciousness, we find that the _mentally_ fit survive among those who live
+only in the areas of the mind; so on, into the spiritual, we will find the
+"survival of the fittest" will be those who are best fitted for spiritual
+eternity--for godhood.
+
+Coming again, to our consideration of the term consciousness, we will take
+a brief survey of that phase of consciousness which we see manifested in
+the forms of life that have the power to move from their immediate
+environment; such for instance would include the fish in the sea; insect
+life; reptiles; the birds in the air; and all forms of animal life.
+
+While expressing a very limited degree of consciousness, yet there is
+evident a certain degree or aggregate of cell consciousness, which
+transcends that of the mineral and vegetable life. This apparently
+_advanced_ degree of consciousness, does not, as we have stated, presuppose
+a nearer approach to immortality, however, for the reason that we apply
+the law of the survival of the fittest to all manifestation, and that
+which is best fitted for certain stages of the planet's life during the
+process of evolvement, may be most unfitted for succeeding stages, and
+will, by the inexorable law of survival, be discontinued--discarded, even
+as the properties and stage-settings of a drama are thrown aside, when the
+play has been "taken off the boards."
+
+It is admitted, therefore, that those forms of life having the power of
+locomotion, involve a more complex degree of consciousness, than does that
+of the mineral or vegetable.
+
+In that phase of life that we see possessing the power to move, to change
+its immediate environment, even though not capable of changing its
+_habitat_ we may perceive the beginning of that consciousness expressed as
+"free-will." Here, we assume, the organism recognizes its self as distinct
+from its environment, and from its counterparts, etc., but this recognition
+has not sufficient consciousness to _assert_ that recognition, and so we
+say that there is no _self_-consciousness. There is what occultists have
+agreed to call simple consciousness, but this does not include a
+realization of identity, as apart from environment. This may be better
+understood if we separate these degrees or phases of consciousness into
+groups, applicable to the human organism, leaving, for a time the
+consideration of whether or not some human specimens are higher in the
+scales than are some animals.
+
+Physical, or sense consciousness, is shared alike by man and the animals.
+
+Beyond this phase of consciousness we may classify the human species in the
+following terms:
+
+Physical self-consciousness.
+
+Mental self-consciousness.
+
+Soul (individual) "I" consciousness.
+
+Spiritual self-consciousness.
+
+Physical self-consciousness is that phase of self-recognition which knows
+itself as a body distinct from its neighbors; from its natural environment.
+This awareness of the self it is that actuated pre-historic man when he
+manifested the blind force that is sometimes called "self-preservation,"
+which force has erroneously been termed "the first law of nature."
+
+Preservation of this physical self is the most "primitive" law of nature,
+but not "first" in the sense that it is the most important, or the
+strongest.
+
+The world's long list of heroes refutes this idea. The pre-historic species
+of human, then, in common with his brother, the animal, sought to preserve
+this physical self, because he felt that this physical self, his body, was
+all there was of him, and he wished to preserve it, even as the _wise_ man
+of to-day, sacrifices everything to the preservation of the moral and
+spiritual Self which he realizes is the _real_ of him.
+
+To this end, he cultivated physical force, sufficient to overcome his
+environment; and as he developed a little of that consciousness which we
+term mental (using the term merely as a part of the physical organism
+called the brain), he realized that co-operation would greatly enhance his
+chances for self-preservation, and therefore, this mental consciousness
+impelled him to annex to his forces other physical organisms so that their
+united strength might preserve each other.
+
+This side of the story of man's evolution in consciousness is not however a
+part of our present work, and we will therefore leave it, for a brief
+consideration of the successive steps in attainment of consciousness,
+leading through devious paths, and through millions of relative time called
+years, into the present state of man's consciousness which in so many
+instances presages the oncoming of that state, called liberation, or
+illumination--mukti.
+
+Through mental self-consciousness the way has been long and arduous. There
+are many, many degrees of this phase of consciousness, and to this phase we
+owe what is called our present civilization.
+
+The true occultist, whether viewing manifestation from the standpoint of
+Oriental or of Occidental ideals, realizes that everything is right which
+makes for human betterment, and that _dharma_ (right-action) consists in
+acting in accordance with the highest motive of which one's consciousness
+is capable.
+
+That our present civilization is most _uncivilized_ in many respects, will
+be admitted by all whose range of consciousness has touched in any degree,
+the infinite areas of wisdom expressed in altruistic action.
+
+But, though the path be long, and thorny, the cycle is closing, and many
+have reached the goal through its zigzag course.
+
+But, underlying, as it were, and upholding and uplifting the expression of
+sense consciousness in which so many persons seem lost to-day, there are
+evidences of a consciousness which _observes the effects_, of this
+tremendous mental activity, and knows itself as something apart from, and
+superior to this manifestation.
+
+This, we define as soul--individualized expression of the spiritual
+consciousness--the central light, which as we previously quoted, "lighteth
+every man that cometh into the world."
+
+Many there are who merely _perceive_ this. To them there is a vague and
+indefinable _something_ which seems to realize that the operations of the
+mind are something phenomenal and apart from the _real_ Self. Psychology,
+even so empirical a psychology as is possible of demonstration in western
+schools and colleges, evidences the fact that there is a far greater field
+of mental operation than is covered by the outer, or _mental_
+consciousness.
+
+The outer, or objective action of the mind, considers but one subject, one
+question, one problem at a time. Many varied _phases_ of this problem may
+present themselves, but the mental forces are focalized upon one subject at
+a time. And yet to state that but one idea, thought-concept, or desire, can
+enter the mind at a time, is not a safe assumption.
+
+After many centuries of material strife, with the object of satisfying the
+demands of human life, the conviction is forcing itself upon people in all
+walks of life, that wealth, ambition, power and possessions, do not give us
+the answer to the eternal unescapable and insistent question of the way to
+happiness.
+
+This means that there is awakening in the human race more generally than at
+any other time in recorded history, a realization that the human organism
+is not merely a physical aggregate of cells, nor yet that it is mind
+individualized and in operation for the purpose of exercising new powers.
+The fact is becoming apparent that all discovery is but an uncovering of
+those vast areas of consciousness which are limitless; and which include
+not only all life on this planet, but all life in the Cosmos. In short,
+cosmic consciousness is becoming _perceived_, by a vast majority, and is
+being _realized_ by not a few.
+
+But in the immediate future of the race, we find the next step, for the
+majority to be that of soul-consciousness.
+
+Back of thought, like a guardian angel stands the desire of the soul,
+stimulating and directing; back of action stands thought, as the master
+directs the servant, or as the captain decides the course of the ship.
+
+Spiritual evolution may be understood, or at least _perceived_, from a
+study of physical and mental evolution. From the crude to the perfect is
+the law; if this perfection of species, or of phases, could be attained
+without pain, it were well. Pain comes from lack of wisdom to realize that
+out of the lower the higher inevitably springs, as the butterfly springs
+from the cocoon; as the flower springs from the seed; "as above so below"
+is a translation of an old Sinto saying, which also bids us "trust in Kami
+and keep clean."
+
+Again it is said "to him who overcometh, will I give the inheritance."
+_Overcoming_ may be variously interpreted. In the past, it has been
+presented to the initiate, as sacrifice. If so it be, then is it because of
+lack of that wisdom which knows that there is no sacrifice in exchanging
+the physical for the spiritual--the ephemeral for the abiding.
+
+Says the ancient manuscripts:
+
+"The body is purified by water, the mind by truth, the soul by knowledge
+and austerity, the reason by wisdom."
+
+But as the groping, undeveloped soul struggles for consciousness, it
+reaches out for the gratification of mental desires. The soul is moved by
+desire for perfect happiness. The mind seeks to satisfy this craving for
+happiness in increased activities; in accumulation; in so-called pleasure,
+i.e. always looking outside--thinking outside, living in the outside--the
+_maya_. But the soul has but one answer to this quest for happiness. It is
+love, because only love and wisdom give immortality--which is
+self-preservation in the true sense.
+
+It is written in the Shruti: "Brahman is wisdom and bliss."
+
+No higher text can be given the disciple.
+
+Wisdom comes from reflection upon the results of Experience, in the search
+for happiness.
+
+When the mind has sounded the depths of its resources, and the urge forward
+can not be appeased, when the voice of the inner self--the soul, cannot be
+silenced; the disciple pauses to ask _the way_. He wants to know what it is
+all about, and why it is that all he has so striven and struggled for fails
+to satisfy. He wants to know how to avoid pain; and how to find the most
+direct road to that satisfaction which endures; and which is not synonymous
+with the so-called "pleasures" of the senses.
+
+When this stage of development has been reached, the disciple is ready for
+another phase of Experience which shall extend his consciousness into
+those areas of knowledge, in which the Real is distinguishable from the
+Illusory.
+
+Experience will then teach him that only Love is real.
+
+That which is for the permanent good of all, as opposed to that which is
+transitory and only seemingly satisfying to the few, may be said to
+constitute the perception of the Real, and the avoidance of Illusion.
+
+To exchange a present seeming advantage to the physical environment, for a
+future and permanent satisfaction of the soul is the prerogative of the
+wise--the soul that has discovered itself and its mission.
+
+In all organisms below the scale of the human, there is a constant growth
+in complexity of organism, with specialization of functions.
+
+When we come to this last-mentioned stage of human development, we find
+that there is no more specialization in the way of development of the
+physical functions. Instead, there is a determined effort at perfecting
+the higher functions, through the gradations of consciousness, until the
+spiritual consciousness of the individual entity has been awakened.
+
+Then, indeed, has been awakened the "divine man" and the path to
+immortality is henceforth comparatively short, although by no means strewn
+with roses, judged from the limited standard of Relativity.
+
+A man's karma simply and mathematically, proves the direction of his former
+desires. Karma does not punish or reward, as is frequently imagined.
+
+The general impression that one is reaping "good or bad karma" according as
+his life is one of pleasure or of pain, is not the solution of the problem
+of karma, and has no relation to the law of karmic action.
+
+If a soul has in a previous life outgrown or outworn that evolutionary
+phase of development, in which the mind seeks temporary pleasures, and has
+come to the place where he wants to distinguish the Real from the Illusory,
+his karma, in compliance with the law of desire, will bring him in relation
+to those conditions which will teach him to know the Real from the
+Illusory, and in those conditions he will experience pain because he will,
+if he remain in the activities of the world, be acting contrary to the
+ideas of the _average_.
+
+Thus, to the onlooker, and in accordance with the general misinterpretation
+of the law of karma, he will be thought to have reaped a "bad" karma, while
+as a matter of reality, he will be making very rapid strides on the path to
+godhood. Said a famous Japanese high priest:
+
+"Desire is the bird that carries the soul to the object in which his mind
+is immersed, and thus his future actions are the result."
+
+This means that by the law of desire, acting in accordance with the
+evolutionary pilgrimage of the soul, the karma is produced. The American
+poet, Lowell, says: "No man is born into the world whose work is not born
+with him." However, whether or not this applies to man in the first stages
+of his upward climb to the goal of attainment of conscious godhood, it most
+assuredly applies to those souls who have become aware of their purpose,
+and who have made a _conscious_ choice of their karma. And of this class of
+souls, the world to-day has a goodly number.
+
+The end of a kalpa finds many avatars, and angels on earth, and however
+obscured the mind of these may become in the fog of Illusion, the inner
+light guides them through its mists to the safe accomplishment of their
+mission.
+
+There is a story of a Buddhist priest, who when dying, was comforted by his
+loving disciples with the reminder that he was at last entering upon a
+state of bliss and rest. To which the earnest one replied:
+
+"Never so long as there is misery to be assuaged, shall I enter Nirvana. I
+shall be reborn where the need is greatest. I shall wish to be reborn in
+the nethermost depths of hell, because that is the place that most needs
+enlightenment; that is the place to point out the path to deliverance; that
+is the place where the light will shine most brightly."
+
+Thus it will be seen we may not readily determine what is "good" and what
+is "bad" karma, by judging from external conditions.
+
+As we are told that we may entertain "angels unawares," so we may pass the
+world's avatars upon the street, and judging from the external, the
+physical environment, we may not know them from the vampire souls that
+contact them.
+
+The point of our present consideration is that this "year of grace,"
+meaning not the mere twelve months of the calendar year, but the century,
+is the end of the present _kalpa_ (cycle), and demonstrates that period of
+evolution has terminated, and the era is at hand when spiritual alchemy
+shall transform the old into the new, and that the desire, which has so
+long ministered to the wants of the physical body, shall be turned
+(converted) into the channels that lead to spiritual consciousness.
+
+The undefined, instinctive urge that has actuated so many intrepid souls,
+is becoming recognized for what it is--the awakening of the inner Self; the
+blind groping in the dark will cease and there shall arise a race of human
+beings liberated; free; aware of their spiritual origin and their inherent
+divinity.
+
+All who have conformed their life activities to the divine law of action,
+which may be tersely stated as "Not mine, but thine, dear brother," will
+have achieved the goal of the soul's purpose--will have found Nirvana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+SELF-NESS AND SELFLESSNESS
+
+
+During what is historically known as the Dark Ages, the esoteric meaning of
+religious practices became obscured. This is true no less, and no more, of
+Oriental countries, than of European. The long night through which the
+earth passed during that time and since, but foreshadowed a coming dawn. In
+the still very imperfect light of the dawning day, truth is seen but dimly,
+and its rays appear distorted, whereas, when seen with the "pure and
+spotless eye" they are straight and clear and simple.
+
+Indeed, the very simplicity of Truth causes her to pass unnoticed.
+
+While to the superficial observer; the student who is mentally eager but
+who lacks the wonderful penetrating power of spiritual insight, there seems
+to be a great complexity in Oriental philosophy, the fact is, that the
+entire aggregation of systems is simple enough when we have the key.
+
+One of the stumbling blocks; the inexplicable enigma to many Occidental
+students, is the problem of the preservation, of the Self, and the constant
+admonition to become selfless. The two appear paradoxical.
+
+How may the Self acquire consciousness and yet become selfless?
+
+Throughout the Oriental teachings, no matter which of the many systems we
+study, we find the oft-repeated declaration that liberation can never be
+accomplished and Nirvana reached, by him "who holds to the idea of self."
+
+It is this universally recognized aphorism which has given rise to the
+erroneous conception of Nirvana as absorption of all identity.
+
+Hakuin Daisi, the St. Paul of Japanese Buddhism, cautioned his disciples
+that they must "absorb the self into the whole, the cosmos, if they would
+never die," and Jesus assured his hearers that "he who loses his life for
+my sake shall find it."
+
+Christians have taken this simple statement to mean that he who endured
+persecution and death because of his espousal of Christianity, would be
+rewarded in the way that a king bestows lands and titles, for defense of
+his person and throne.
+
+This is the limited viewpoint of the personal self; it is far from being
+consistent with the wisdom of the Illumined Master.
+
+He who has sufficient spiritual consciousness to desire the welfare of
+_all_, even though his own life and his own possessions were the price
+therefore, can not lose his life. Such a one is fit for immortality and
+his godhood is claimed by the very act of renunciation--not as a reward
+bestowed for such renunciation.
+
+By the very act of willingness to lose the self we find the Self. Not the
+self of externality. Not the self that says "I am a white man; or a black
+man; or a yellow man; or a red man." That says "I am John Smith"--or any
+other name. The awareness of this kind of selfhood, this personal self, is
+like looking at one's reflection in the mirror and saying, "Ah, I have on a
+becoming attire," or "my face looks sickly to-day." It is the same "I" that
+looked yesterday and found the face looking excellently well, so that there
+must have been consciousness behind the observation, that could take
+cognizance of the difference in appearance of yesterday's reflection and
+that which met that cognizing eye to-day.
+
+Eagerness to retain consciousness of the personal self blocks the way of
+Illumination which uncovers the real, the greater, the higher Self--the
+_atman_.
+
+This constant adjuration to sink the self into The Absolute, is what has
+given rise to so much difference of interpretation as to the meaning of
+_mukti_, liberation. It sounds paradoxical to state that it is only by
+giving up all consciousness of self, that immortal Self-hood is gained.
+
+Thus has arisen all the confusion as to the meaning of "absorption into a
+state of bliss." How may the Self realize a state of selflessness and yet
+not be lost in a sea of _un_ consciousness?
+
+Only one who is capable of self-sacrifice were he called upon, can
+correctly answer this question, and by what may be termed the very _law of
+equation_, the sacrifice becomes impossible.
+
+Should any one seek to bargain with himself to pay the price of loss of
+self, so that he might gain the higher, fuller life, his sacrifice would be
+in vain because it would not be selflessness, but selfishness--there could
+be no _sacrifice_, were it a bargain.
+
+Let no one think that this unchanging law of the Cosmos is in the nature of
+either reward or punishment, or that it was devised by the gods, as a
+method of initiation--a test of fitness for Nirvana. Even though the test
+be applied by the gods, it is not of their planning.
+
+It _is_, just as the absolute _is_, and analysis of the way and wherefrom
+is not possible of contemplation.
+
+If it sometimes appears that Illumined Ones have seemed to infer a loss of
+identity of the Self, it should be remembered that not only have these
+reported instances of liberation (cosmic consciousness attained), been
+vague, but they have necessarily suffered from the impossibility of
+describing that which is indescribable. We should also remember that
+translators employ the words in the English language which most nearly
+express their interpretation of the original meaning.
+
+Words are at best but clumsy symbols.
+
+Perfect bliss is voiceless--inexpressible.
+
+This does not, however, mean that perfect bliss is nothingness. Rather is
+it _everything-ness_, in that it is all-embracing in its realization. In
+complete realization of the Cosmos nothing is excluded. Exclusiveness is a
+concomitant of the state of consciousness pertinent to the personal self,
+which state is not excluded from the consciousness described as cosmic,
+_nirvana_ or _mukti_, but on the contrary, is included in it, even as the
+simple vibrations of the musical scale are included in the great harmonies
+of Wagner's compositions.
+
+"He who has realized Brahman becomes silent," says Ramakrishna.
+"Discussions and argumentations exist so long as the realization of The
+Absolute does not come. If you melt butter in a pan over a fire, how long
+does it make a noise? So long as there is water in it. When the water is
+evaporated it ceases to make further noise. The soul of the seeker after
+Brahman may be compared to fresh butter. Discussions and argumentations of
+a seeker are like the noise caused during the process of purification by
+the fire of knowledge. As the water of egotism and worldliness is
+evaporated and the soul becomes purer, all noise of debates and discussions
+ceases and absolute silence reigns in the state of _samadhi_."
+
+A better translation of the word "noise" would be "sputtering."
+
+Sound is not necessarily _noise_. The idea conveyed is not intended to be a
+condition in which the soul becomes anaesthetized as it were, but a state of
+_knowing_, and the effort and the sputtering of _questioning_ and
+_searching_ is passed.
+
+The same gospel better expresses the meaning thus:
+
+"The bee buzzes so long as it is outside the lotus, and does not settle
+down in its heart to drink of the honey. As soon as it tastes of the honey
+all buzzing is at an end. Similarly all noise of discussion ceases when the
+soul of the neophyte begins to drink the nectar of Divine Love, at the
+lotus feet of the Blissful One."
+
+Who will not say that the bee is more satisfied when he has found and drank
+of the honey than when he is buzzingly seeking it?
+
+Surely it is not necessary to be of one mind, in order that we may be of
+one heart. Even though we were as "like as two peas in a pod," it is well
+to note that the two peas are _two_ spheres--nature has made them separate
+and distinct despite their close resemblance.
+
+To unite with the absolute should correspond to this unity of all hearts in
+the desire for a common effort to establish harmony, while we permit to
+each individual the freedom of mind; of taste; of choice of pursuits; of
+choice of pleasure; of discrimination; and preservation of identity.
+
+Our contention is that _mukti_, or liberation (which we believe to be
+identical with attainment of cosmic consciousness) does not mean an
+absorption into the Universal, the Absolute, Brahm, to the extent of
+annihilation of identity. And we claim that this view finds corroboration
+in the best interpretation of Oriental philosophies and religions, as well
+as in the Christian doctrine.
+
+Says Nagasena, the Buddhist sage:
+
+"He who is not free from passion experiences both the taste of food, and
+also the passion due to that taste; while he who is free from passion
+experiences the taste of food but no passion."
+
+Hence we discover that the state of Illumination, _samadhi_, or _mukti_,
+according to the most enlightened and logical interpretation, means a calm
+and peaceful consciousness, undisturbed by passion. But we should not
+interpret the word "passion" as here used, to mean absence of all
+sensation, feeling or knowledge.
+
+There is absolutely no arbitrary interpretation or translation of the words
+of Buddha, nor can there be. The same is true of Confucius; of Mohammed; of
+Krishna; of Laotze; of Jesus; of all the teachers and philosophers of the
+world.
+
+Who of you who read these words has not listened to debates and endless
+discussions as to what even so modern a writer as Emerson or Whitman, or
+Nietzche or Kobo Daisi, or some other, may have meant by certain
+statements?
+
+In the Samyutta Nikaya we read:
+
+"Let a man who holds the Self clear, keep that Self free from wickedness."
+
+This does not imply annihilation of identity, _absorption_ of
+consciousness, although it has been so interpreted by many students. On the
+contrary, instead of losing consciousness of the Self (which is not merely
+the personality), we _find_ the Real Self.
+
+As an adult we realize more consciousness than we do as infants. Not that
+we possess more consciousness. We cannot acquire consciousness as we
+accumulate _things_. We can not add one iota to the sum of consciousness,
+but we can and do uncover portion upon portion of the vast area of
+consciousness which _is_.
+
+Says the Dhammapada:
+
+"As kinsmen, friends and lovers salute a man who has been long away and
+returns safe from afar; in like manner his good deeds receive him who has
+done good, and who has gone from this world to the other, as kinsmen
+receive a friend on his return."
+
+If this state of _mukti_ were annihilation of individual consciousness it
+would hardly be an incentive to do good deeds, except that good deeds in
+themselves bring happiness, but if the bringing of happiness did not also
+bring with it a larger consciousness, it would not be true happiness, but
+merely a _condition_, and conditions are always subject to change.
+
+"It is not separateness you should hope and long for; it is _union_--the
+sense of oneness with all that is, that has ever been and that can ever
+be--the sense that shall _enlarge the horizon of your being_, to the limits
+of the universe; to the boundaries of time and space; that shall lift you
+up into a new plane far beyond, outside all mean and miserable care for
+self. Why stand shrinking there? Give up the fool's paradise of 'This is
+I'; 'This is mine.' It is the great reality you are asked to grasp. Leap
+forward without fear. You shall find yourself in the ambrosial waters of
+Nirvana and sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
+
+This admonition to give up the struggle and strife for separateness is
+interpreted by many to declare for annihilation of consciousness of
+identity, but we contend that _union_ is in no wise akin to annihilation,
+and since this assurance of union is further described as an enlargement of
+the horizon of _your being_, it is evident that your being can not be
+enlarged by becoming annihilated, or even _absorbed into_ The Absolute, as
+in that event it would cease to be _your being_. Moreover, you are told
+that you will "sport with the Arhats who have conquered birth and death."
+Arhats are alluded to in the plural, and not as One Being.
+
+To be sure there may be a final state of absorption of consciousness far
+beyond this state of being which is described as Nirvana.
+
+Theosophy lays much stress upon the assumption that the attainment of
+godhood is possible to every human soul, but that this godhood must
+inevitably have an ultimate conclusion. That is, there is a _place_ or
+heaven, which is called the Devachanic plane, and this plane, or place,
+is inhabited by "gods," for a definite period, approximating thousands of
+years, but that the final conclusion must be, absorption of identity into
+the universal reservoir of mind, or consciousness. But we may readily see
+that beyond the Devachanic plane, we may not penetrate with the limited
+consciousness which takes cognizance of external conditions. Any attempt,
+therefore, at a description of what occurs to the individual consciousness
+beyond the areas of Devachan, must be futile.
+
+The argument that most logically postulates the assumption that all
+identity, or differentiation of consciousness, becomes absorbed into The
+Absolute, is based upon the fact that we remember nothing of previous
+states of consciousness. That is, the devious pathway by which the
+advanced and progressive individual has reached his present state or
+realization of consciousness, is shrouded in oblivion. From this it is
+not unnatural to assume that since we have come OUT OF THE VOID, having
+apparently no memory or realization of what preceded this coming, we will
+return to the same state, when we shall have completed the round of
+evolution.
+
+This postulate, is, however, merely the result of our limited power of
+comprehension, and may or may not be true. The answer is as yet
+inexplicable to the finite mind, considered from the standpoint of relative
+proof.
+
+If it were a fact, that all Oriental sages experiencing the phenomenon of
+liberation, _mukti_, had reported what would seem to be annihilation of
+identity of consciousness, we still maintain that this fact would not be
+proof sufficient upon which to postulate this conclusion, for the very
+obvious reason that the present era promises what Occidental theology,
+science, and philosophy unite in designating as a "new dispensation,"
+wherein the "old shall pass away," and a "new order" shall be established.
+
+"Look how the fine and valuable gold-dust shifts through the screen,
+leaving only the useless stones and debris in the catches; even so that
+which is infinitely fine substance becomes lost when sifted through the
+screen of the limited mind of man," said a wise Japanese high priest.
+
+However, it is our contention that Buddhism, far indeed from postulating
+the assumption that individual consciousness is swallowed up in The
+Absolute, as is frequently understood by Occidental translators of
+Buddhistic writings, announces a calm and unquestioning conviction in the
+power of man to attain to immortality, and consequent godhood, through
+contemplation of faith in his own identity with the _Supreme One_.
+
+When we consider that there are in the religion of Buddhism, as many as
+sixty different expositions of the teachings of the Lord Buddha, and that
+these vary, even as the Christian sects vary in their interpretations and
+presentments of the instructions of the Master, Jesus of Nazareth, we begin
+to have some idea of the difficulties of correct interpretation of the
+obscure and mystical language in which _mukti_ is ever described.
+
+One of the most quoted of the translations of the Life of Buddha, reaches
+the English readers through devious ways, namely, from the Sanskrit into
+Chinese, and from the Chinese into English, and again edited by an English
+scientist who is also an Oriental scholar.
+
+We must also consider the poverty of the English language when used to
+describe supra-conscious experiences, or what modern thought terms
+Metaphysics. Only within very recent times, approximating twenty-five
+years, there have been coined innumerable words in the English language.
+
+The advances made in mechanical, scientific, ethical and philosophical
+thought, have made this a necessity, while, when it comes to an attempt at
+clarifying the meaning of mystical terms, a very wide range of
+interpretation is imperative.
+
+Buddha, addressing his servant, says:
+
+"Kandaka, take this gem and going back to where my father is, lay it
+reverently before him, to signify my heart's relation to him."
+
+It is related that the gem mentioned was a beryl, which in the language of
+gems signifies purity and peace. It must be remembered that all Oriental
+languages give power to gems, perfumes and talismanic symbols. This fact
+makes direct translation of Oriental writings a difficult task for the
+Occidental scholar, who, until recently at least, gave no power to
+so-called "inanimate" things.
+
+"And then for me request the king to stifle every fickle feeling of
+affection, and say that I, to escape from birth and age and death, have
+entered the forest of painful discipline.
+
+"Not that I may get a heavenly birth, much less because I have no
+tenderness of heart, or that I cherish any cause of bitterness, but Only
+that I may escape this weight of sorrow; the accumulated long-night weight
+of covetous desire. I now desire to ease the load, so that it may be
+overthrown forever; therefore I seek the way of ultimate escape.
+
+"If I should gain the way of emancipation, then shall I never need to put
+away my kindred, to leave my home, to sever ties of love. O grieve not for
+your son. The five desires of sense beget the sorrow; those held by lust
+themselves induce sorrow; my very ancestors, victorious kings, have handed
+down to me their kingly wealth; I, thinking only on eternal bliss, put it
+all away."
+
+The meaning here conveyed is simple enough to understand. From a long line
+of ancestors who had ruled with the unquestioned authority of Oriental
+monarchs, the young prince felt that he had inherited much that would
+retard his soul's freedom. The examples of kings and emperors who have
+abandoned their possessions have been too few to cause us to believe that
+they have held these possessions as naught.
+
+Through rivers of blood; through ages of despotism, and self-seeking, kings
+and emperors have maintained their vested rights bequeathing to their
+progeny the same desires; the same covetousness of worldly power; the same
+consideration for the lesser self; the same hypnotism that takes account of
+caste.
+
+To escape from these fetters of the soul, into a realization of the Eternal
+Oneness of life, was no easy task for the inheritor of such desires and
+beliefs and appetites as an ancestry of rulers imposes.
+
+And Prince Siddhartha was anxious to escape reincarnation--a theory or
+conviction inseparable from Oriental religion.
+
+His reference to "fickle affection" means literally that selfish affection
+of the parent, which would retain the fleeting joy of a few short earthly
+years of companionship, while the larger and more perfect love would bid
+the child seek its birthright of godhood. The word "fickle" here would more
+properly be translated transitory.
+
+Buddha's desire to escape from a continuous round of deaths and
+"leave-takings from kindred," does not necessarily imply an absorption into
+The Absolute; it may as logically be interpreted to mean, that liberation
+from the hypnotisms of externality _(mukti)_ insures the possession and
+power of the gods--power over physical life and death, and this power need
+not mean a cessation from individual consciousness, but rather, a full
+realization of individual _unity_ with the sum of all consciousness.
+
+There is another mistaken interpretation of the means of attainment of that
+state of liberation, which has been alluded to in so many varied terms. The
+fact that Buddha, like many of the Oriental Masters, sought the seclusion
+of the forest; the isolation, and simplicity of the hermit,--has given rise
+to the belief, almost universally held among Oriental disciples, that
+liberation from _maya_, the delusions of the world, can not be attained
+save by these methods.
+
+Monasteries are the result of this idea, and this Buddhistic practice was
+adopted by the first Christian church, since which time the real purpose
+and intention of the monastery and the nunnery have become lost in the
+concept of sacrifice or punishment. The Christian monk almost invariably
+retires to a monastery, not for the purpose of consciously attaining to
+that enlarged area of consciousness which insures liberation, _mukti_, but
+as an "outward and visible sign" that he is willing to undergo the
+sacrifice of worldly pleasures at the behest of the Lord Jesus. Thus, the
+real object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the
+nature of a "bargain."
+
+In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:
+
+"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the
+two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is
+harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,
+whose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one
+not _affected_.
+
+"He who acteth, placing all action in the _eternal_, abandoning attachment,
+is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters."
+
+This is interpreted according to the viewpoint of the translator, even as,
+among an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost as many
+interpretations, and shades of meaning of a musical composition.
+
+True, the Oriental meaning _seems_ to be the one that we shall cease to
+love friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon
+the furniture of one's household when outworn, and no longer of service.
+
+We do not accept this interpretation.
+
+To abandon one's friends, one's loved ones, yea, even one's would-be
+enemies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,
+without sentiment or remorse, save one's physical self from destruction.
+
+No higher sentiment is known to struggling humanity than love of each
+other. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
+friend."
+
+Oriental or Occidental philosophy, whichever may be presented to the mind,
+as an unfailing guide, should be distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes
+the abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother, companion.
+That is, if we accept the dictionary meaning of the word "abandoned" as
+translated into English.
+
+A western avatar has said:
+
+"I will not have what my brother can not," and in this we heartily concur,
+not hesitating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize
+the fullness of this message, we shall not, as a race, have attained to the
+inheritance that is ours.
+
+But shall we then believe, that the Oriental doctrine is erroneous? Not
+necessarily.
+
+Errors of interpretation are not only natural but inevitable, and this
+interpretation of abandonment is in line with the idea of sacrifice (using
+the word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all
+the centuries just passed--centuries in which the idea of God was estimated
+by the conduct of the kings and monarchs of earth.
+
+A later revelation or dispensation has given what the Illumined One said
+was a "new commandment," and it is one more in accord with our ideals of
+godhood.
+
+"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye _love_ one another."
+
+But love, like everything which _is_, means much or little, according as
+the soul is advanced in knowledge, or is undeveloped.
+
+Perfect and complete love is not selfish; it desires not possession, but
+union. There is a world of difference between the two words.
+
+"The soul enchained is man, and free from chain is God," said Sri
+Ramakrishna.
+
+And the soul is enchained by illusion--by mistaking the effect for the
+cause, and by regarding the effect as the real, instead of realizing the
+incompleteness; the limitedness; the unsatisfying character of the
+changing--the external.
+
+Not that the pursuit of the external is sinful, but it is unsatisfying,
+while the soul that has caught a glimpse of that wonderful ecstasy of
+Illumination, has found that which satisfies.
+
+Upon this point of attainment of complete satisfaction, and certainty, all
+who have experienced the consciousness we are considering seem to agree,
+according to the testimony here submitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+INSTANCES OF ILLUMINATION AND ITS EFFECTS
+
+
+The term Illumination seems a fitting description of the state of
+consciousness which is frequently alluded to as cosmic consciousness.
+Without the light of understanding, which is a spiritual quality, words
+themselves are meaningless. When the mind becomes Illumined the spirit of
+the word is clear and where before the meaning was clouded, or perhaps
+altogether obscured, there comes to the Illumined One a depth of
+comprehension undreamed of by the merely sense-conscious person.
+
+If we consider the recorded instances of Illumination found among
+Occidentals, we will find that such extreme intensity of effort as that
+which is reported of Sri Ramakrishna, and other Oriental sages, does not
+appear.
+
+It would seem that the late Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke of Toronto, Canada,
+was the first in this country to present a specific classification of what
+he termed the "new" consciousness, and to describe in some detail, he
+experience of himself and others, notably Walt Whitman.
+
+Dr. Bucke's first public exposition of these experiences was made at a
+congress of the British Medical Association in Montreal, Canada, in
+September of the year 1897. Dr. Bucke described this state of
+consciousness--a subject that seemed to him at that time to be a new
+one--in the following words:
+
+"But of infinitely more importance than telepathy, and so-called
+spiritualism--no matter what explanation we give of these, or what their
+future is destined to be--is the final act here touched upon. This is, that
+superimposed upon self-consciousness as is that faculty upon simple
+consciousness, a third and higher form of consciousness is at present
+making its appearance in our race. This higher form of consciousness, when
+it appears, occurs as it must, at the full maturity of the individual, at
+or about the age of thirty-five, but almost always between the ages of
+thirty and forty. There have been occasional cases of it for the last two
+thousand years, and it is becoming more and more common. In fact, in all
+appearances, as far as observed, it obeys the laws to which every nascent
+faculty is subject. Many more or less perfect examples of this new faculty
+exist in the world to-day, and it has been my privilege to know personally
+and to have had the opportunity of studying, several men and women who have
+possessed it. In the course of a few more milleniums there should be born
+from the present human race, a higher type of man, possessing this higher
+type of consciousness. This new race, as it may well be called, would
+occupy toward us, a position such as that occupied by us toward the simple
+conscious 'alulus homo.' The advent of this higher, better and happier
+race, would simply justify the long agony of its birth through countless
+ages of our past. And it is the first article of my belief, some of the
+grounds for which I have endeavored to lay before you, that a new race is
+in course of evolution."
+
+At a subsequent date, having given the subject further consideration and
+having collected data corroborative of his former observations, Dr. Bucke
+said:
+
+"I have, in the last three years, collected twenty-three cases of this
+so-called cosmic consciousness. In each case the onset or incoming of the
+new faculty is always sudden, instantaneous. Among the unusual feelings the
+mind experiences, is a sudden sense of being immersed in flame or in a
+brilliant light. This occurs entirely without worrying or outward cause,
+and may happen at noonday or in the middle of the night, and the person at
+first feels that he is becoming insane.
+
+"Along with these feelings comes a sense of immortality; not merely a
+feeling of certainty that there is a future life,--that would be a small
+matter--but a pronounced _consciousness_ that the life now being lived is
+eternal, death being seen as a trivial incident which does not affect its
+continuity.
+
+"Further, there is annihilation of the sense of sin, and an intellectual
+competency, not simply surpassing the old plane, but on an entirely new and
+higher plane. * * * The cosmic conscious race will not be the race that
+exists to-day, any more than the present is the same race that existed
+prior to the evolution of self-consciousness. A new race is being born from
+us, and this new race will in the near future, possess the earth."
+
+Dr. Bucke later published an article in a current magazine, illustrating
+the illumination of his friend Walt Whitman, and supplemented with an
+account of his own experience. We quote briefly from Dr. Bucke's account of
+his own experience:
+
+"I had spent the evening in a great city with some friends reading and
+discussing poetry and philosophy. We had occupied ourselves with
+Wordsworth, Shelley, Browning, and especially Whitman. We parted at
+midnight. I had a long drive in a hansom to my lodgings. My mind, deeply
+under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the
+reading and talk, was calm and peaceful. I was in a state of quiet, almost
+passive enjoyment, not actually thinking, but letting ideas, images and
+emotions flow of themselves, as it were, through my mind. All at once,
+without warning of any kind, I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored
+cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere
+close by in that great city. The next moment I knew that the fire was
+within myself."
+
+While Dr. Bucke is unquestionably right in his estimate of the fact that "a
+new race is being born," as he expresses it, there can scarcely be any
+question of individual age, in which the new consciousness may be expected.
+Physical maturity can have nothing whatever to do with the matter, since
+the acquisition of supra-consciousness is a matter of the maturity of the
+soul. This completement of the cycle of the soul's pilgrimage and service,
+may come at any age, as far as the physical body is concerned. Indeed,
+science records no definite age at which even physical maturity is
+invariably reached, although there is an approximate age.
+
+A case recently widely commented upon was that of a child of six years who
+showed every symptom of senility or old age, which could hardly be possible
+without having passed what we call "maturity."
+
+Again, we find that some persons retain every indication of youth, both of
+mind and body, long after their contemporaries have reached and passed
+middle age. It is coming more and more to be admitted that age is relative,
+and that what we know as the relative is the effect of mental operations.
+Mental operations are subject to change--to enlargement.
+
+The advent of cosmic consciousness is, therefore, not subject to what we
+know as time, as applied to physical development.
+
+Nor should we speak of cosmic consciousness as an acquisition, but rather
+as a _realization_, since the consciousness _is_, at all times. It always
+has been, it will always be. Our relation to it changes, as we develop from
+the sense conscious to the self-conscious state and finally to what we term
+the "cosmic" conscious state. This latter must of necessity have been as
+yet only imperfectly realized, even by those of the Illuminati, who are
+known to the world as avatars and saviours.
+
+Several instances of the possession of cosmic consciousness by children,
+are personally known to the writer. A well-known woman writer in America
+thus describes a succession of experiences in what were evidently
+conditions of cosmic consciousness, although as she said, she did not
+until many years later realize what had taken place.
+
+Like Lord Alfred Tennyson, who tells of inducing in himself a state of
+spiritual ecstasy or liberation, by repeatedly intoning his own name, this
+lady acquired the habit of repeating in wonder and awe the name by which
+she was called in the household, which was an abbreviation of her baptismal
+name. The effect is best described in her own words:
+
+"It seems to me that I never could quite become accustomed to hear myself
+addressed by name. When some member of the household would call me from
+study or play--even at the early age of five or six years--I would
+instantly be seized with a feeling of great and almost overwhelming awe and
+amazement, at the sound, which I knew was in some way associated with me.
+
+"I found it extremely difficult to identity myself with that name, and
+often when alone would repeat the name over and over, trying to find a
+solution of the 'why and wherefore.'
+
+"At length this wonderment grew upon me to such an extent that I felt I
+must see this self of me that was called by a name.
+
+"I acquired the habit of standing on a chair to gaze into the mirror above
+the chest of drawers in my mother's bed-room, and putting my face close to
+the mirror, I would gaze and gaze into the eyes I saw there, and repeat
+over and over the name which seemed to me not to belong to that 'other
+self' hidden behind those eyes. On one occasion I became quite entranced
+and fell from the chair, after which I refrained from looking into the
+mirror, although I did not for many years get over the feeling of
+wonderment at the sound of my own name, and many times, on repeating the
+name aloud, I would feel myself being lifted up into what seemed to me the
+clouds above my head, until I felt myself being 'melted,' as I termed it,
+into the moving cloud of soft transparent light.
+
+"At this time I was between seven and eight years of age, and although I
+was far beyond children of my age, in my school studies, I was frequently
+admonished for being 'stupid,' owing to the fact that I could not remember
+the names of objects, nor could I be trusted on an errand.
+
+"While walking from our house to the grocer's, scarcely a block away, I
+would feel that sudden wonderment and awe of my name steal over me, and
+again I would be transported to some unknown, yet immanent region, utterly
+losing consciousness of my surroundings. I would sometimes awake to find
+myself standing before the counter of the grocery store, struggling to
+remember who and where I was, and what it was that I had been sent to that
+strange place for."
+
+This lady relates that she never dared to tell of her strange experiences,
+although she did not "outgrow" them until early womanhood, when she dropped
+the abbreviation of her name, and assumed her full baptismal name. Whether
+this latter fact had anything to do with the cessation of the experience is
+doubtful. At the same time, she declares that she can even now induce the
+same sensations, and transport herself into childhood again by repeating
+her childhood name.
+
+The following extract from a paper published in London, England, in 1890,
+gives a description of an experience of a young man who had fallen into a
+condition which the physicians pronounced "catalepsy." This young man was
+at the time a medical student, and had always exhibited a tendency to
+entrancement, or catalepsy. On recovering from one of these cataleptic
+attacks, and being asked to give a description of his sensations or
+experiences, the young man said:
+
+"I felt a kind of soothing slumber stealing over me. I became aware that I
+was floating in a vast ocean of light and joy. I was here, there, and
+everywhere. I was everybody and everybody was I. I knew I was I, and yet I
+knew that I was much more than myself. Indeed, it seemed to me that there
+was no division. That all the universe was in me and I in it, and yet
+nothing was lost or swallowed up. Everything was alive with a joy that
+would never diminish."
+
+Such, in substance, was the attempt of this young man to describe what all
+who have experienced cosmic consciousness unite in saying is indescribable,
+for the very obvious reason that there are no words in which to express
+what is wordless, and inexpressible. This authentic account of a young man
+under twenty years of age, however, serves to prove that there is no
+special age of physical maturity in which the attainment of this state of
+consciousness may be expected.
+
+This account was published seven years previous to Dr. Bucke's statement,
+and yet, since it is not quoted in Dr. Bucke's account, it is most unlikely
+that he had seen the article. Certainly the young man had never heard of
+the experience which Dr. Bucke later records, as "cosmic consciousness,"
+and yet the similarity of the experience, with the many which have been
+recorded is almost startling.
+
+The salient point in this account, as in most of the others which have
+found their way into public print, is the feeling of being in perfect
+harmony and union with everything in the universe. "I was everything and
+everything was I," said this young man, and again "I was here, there and
+everywhere at once," he says in an effort to describe something which in
+the very nature of it, must be indescribable in terms of sense
+consciousness.
+
+Illustrative of the connection between religious ecstasy and cosmic
+consciousness, we find the experience of an illiterate negro woman, a
+celebrated religious and anti-slavery worker of the early part of the last
+century.
+
+This woman was known as "Sojourner Truth" and was at least forty years of
+age in 1817, when she was given her freedom under a law which freed all
+slaves in New York state, who had attained the age of forty years.
+
+Sojourner Truth never learned to read or write, and her education consisted
+almost entirely of that presentation of religious truth which finds its
+most successful converts in revivalism.
+
+With this fact in mind, nothing less than the attainment of a wonderful
+degree of spiritual consciousness could account for her marvelous power of
+description, and her ready flow of language, when "exhorting."
+
+Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote of her, in an article published in the
+Atlantic Monthly, as early as 1863:
+
+"I do not recollect ever to have been conversant with any one who had more
+of that silent and subtle power which we call personal presence, than this
+woman. In the modern spiritualistic phraseology, she would be described as
+having a 'strong sphere.'"
+
+The wonderful mental endowment which seems to follow as a complement to the
+experience of Illumination, when not already present, as in the case of
+Whitman, for example, is characteristic of "Sojourner Truth," or Isabella,
+as she was baptized.
+
+Naturally, this mental power, seemingly inconsistent with her humble
+origin, and her unlettered condition, is evidenced along those lines which
+made up the sum and substance of her life. Judging her from the broader
+concept of philosophy, Isabella appears somewhat fanatical, but the
+influence of her life and work was so great, that Wendell Phillips wrote of
+her:
+
+"I once heard her describe the captain of a slave ship going up to
+judgment, followed by his victims as they gathered from the depths of the
+sea, in a strain that reminded me of Clarence's dream in Shakespeare, and
+equalled it. The anecdotes of her ready wit and quick striking replies are
+numberless. But the whole together give little idea of the rich, quaint,
+poetic and often profound speech of a most remarkable person, who used to
+say to us: 'You read books; God Himself talks to me.'"
+
+Isabella's conviction that she had "talked to God," was unshakable, and
+was, indeed, the dynamic force which moved her. She was accustomed to tell
+of the strange and startling experience in which she met God face to face,
+and in which she said to Him: "Oh, God, I didn't know as you was so big."
+In the New England Magazine for March, 1901, there was given a full account
+of the work of this noted negro woman. Commenting on her sense of awe of
+the immensity of God "when she met him," the writer says:
+
+"The consciousness of God's presence was like a fire around her and she was
+afraid, till she began to feel that somebody stood between her and this
+brilliant presence; and after a while she knew that this somebody loved
+her. At first, she thought it must be Cato, a preacher whom she knew or
+Deencia or Sally--people who had been her friends.
+
+"We are not told whether these persons were living or dead, or whether she
+thought they had come in the flesh, or in the spirit to her relief. However
+this may be, she soon perceived that their images looked vile and black and
+could not be the beautiful presence that shielded her from the fires of
+God. She began to experiment with her inner vision, and found that when she
+said to the presence 'I know you, I know you,' she perceived a light; but
+when she said 'I don't know you,' the light went out.
+
+"At last, she became aware that it was Jesus who was shielding her and
+loving her, and the world grew bright, her troubled thoughts were banished,
+and her heart was filled with praise and with love for all creatures.
+'Lord, Lord,' she cried, 'I can love even de white folks.'"
+
+The question will legitimately arise here, as to the authenticity of an
+experience in which Jesus is said to be personally guiding and shielding
+her, but it must be remembered that the mind is the medium through which
+the spiritual realization must be _expressed_ and, as has been stated
+previously, the description of the phenomenon of Illumination, particularly
+when experienced in a sudden influx must partake of the character of the
+mind of the illumined one.
+
+William James, late professor of Psychology of Harvard University, in his
+exhaustive book _The Varieties of Religious Experiences_, in the chapter on
+"The Value of Saintliness," says:
+
+"Now in the matter of intellectual standards, we must bear in mind that it
+is unfair, where we find narrowness of mind, always to impute it as a vice
+to the individual for in religious and theological matters, he probably
+absorbs his narrowness from his generation. Moreover, we must not confound
+the essentials of saintliness with its accidents, which are the special
+determination of these passions at any historical moment. In these
+determinations the saints will usually be loyal to the temporary idols of
+their tribe."
+
+Applying this explanation to the case of "Sojourner Truth," we may realize
+that the literal conception of Jesus as her guide and shield, was a mental
+image, inevitable with her, as Jesus was the motive power of her every
+thought and act. And although at the moment of her Illumination, she
+realized the "bigness" of God, later, in arranging and recording the
+phenomenon, in her mental note-book, she tabulated it with all she knew of
+God--the religious enthusiasm of her work of conversion to the religion of
+Jesus.
+
+Says James, commenting upon the question of conversion in human experience:
+and this tendency to what seems a narrow and limited viewpoint:
+
+"If you open the chapter on 'Association,' of any treatise on Psychology,
+you will read that a man's ideas, aims and objects form diverse internal
+groups, and systems, relatively independent of one another. Each 'aim'
+which he follows awakens a certain specific kind of interested excitement,
+and gathers a certain group of ideas together in subordination to it as
+its associates."
+
+It is perhaps natural to assume that most instances of the attainment of
+Illumination, have been inseparable from religious devotion, or at least
+contemplative mysticism. This view is held almost exclusively by
+Orientals, and seems to have been shared to a great extent by western
+commentators upon the subject.
+
+A notable example among Occidentals, bearing the religious aspect, and one
+which is important from the fact that the person detailing his experience,
+was a man of mental training, is the case of Rev. Charles G. Finney,
+formerly president of Oberlin College.
+
+In his "Memoirs," Dr. Finney describes what Orthodox Christians generally
+call the "baptism of the Holy Spirit":
+
+"I had retired to a back room for prayer," writes Dr. Finney, "and there
+was no fire or light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it
+were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as
+if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then
+nor did it for some time afterwards, that it was wholly a mental state.
+
+"On the contrary, it seemed to me a reality, that he stood before me and I
+fell down at his feet and poured out my soul to him. I wept aloud like a
+child and made such confessions as I could with choked utterance.
+
+"It seemed to me that I bathed his feet with my tears, and yet I had no
+distinct impression that I touched him, that I recollect. As I turned and
+was about to take my seat, I received a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost.
+
+"Without any expectation, without even having the thought in my mind, that
+there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever
+heard the thing mentioned, by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit
+descended upon me in a manner that seemed to go through me body and soul.
+
+"I could feel the impression like the waves of electricity going through me
+and through me. Indeed, it seemed to come in _waves of liquid love_. For I
+could not express it in any other way. It seemed like the very breath of
+God. I can recollect distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense
+wings. No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my
+heart.
+
+"I wept aloud with joy and love. These waves came over me, and over me,
+one after the other, until I recollect that I cried out, 'I shall die if
+these waves continue to pass over me.' I said 'Lord, I cannot bear any
+more.'"
+
+We will note, that although Dr. Finney says that he could not remember ever
+having heard the thing mentioned by any person, yet he felt "the baptism of
+the Holy Spirit." It is practically impossible that Dr. Finney could have
+lived in an age and a community which was essentially strict in its
+Orthodoxy, without having heard of the phrase "baptism of the Holy Spirit,"
+even though the words had escaped his immediate recollection. However, the
+point that characterizes Dr. Finney's experience, in common with all
+others, is that of seeing an intense light, and of the realization of the
+overwhelming force of love.
+
+The relation of this experience to a creed or system of religion, is
+something which, we believe, may be accounted for, as Professor James has
+said, on the fact of "historical determination."
+
+Until very recently, the idea that spirituality was impossible save in
+connection with religious systems, and rigid discipline, has been quite
+general.
+
+In the case of Dr. Finney, we find that all his life previous to this
+experience he had been noted for his simplicity and child-like trust.
+Following his Illumination we learn that he became a man of great
+influence, and power, because of "the wonderful humanity which he
+radiated."
+
+Similar in experience, in its effects, is a case related by Theodore F.
+Seward, the well-known American philanthropist, Mr. Seward relates the
+following story:
+
+"The strange experience which I here relate came to a friend whom I knew
+intimately, and from whose lips I received the account. It is a lady in
+middle life, who has for years been an earnest seeker for truth and
+spiritual light. She was alone in her room sewing.
+
+"Thinking, as was her wont, of spiritual things and feeling a strong sense
+of the presence and power of God, she suddenly had a consciousness of being
+surrounded by a brilliant white light, which seemed to radiate from her
+person. The light continued for some minutes, and at the same time, she
+felt a great spiritual uplifting and an enlargement of her mental powers,
+as if the limitations of the body were transcended, and her soul's
+capacities were in a measure set free for the moment. The experience was
+unique, above and beyond the ordinary current of human life, and while the
+vision or impression passed away, a permanent effect was produced upon her
+mind. She had never heard the term 'cosmic consciousness,' and did not know
+that the subject it covers is beginning to be discussed."
+
+It must be noted that in these experiences, the idea most strongly felt was
+the one of the "power and presence of God," and we are impressed with the
+fact that, no matter how varied may be the _creeds_ of the world, as
+founded by "saviours" and incarnations of God, there is a unity among all
+races, as to the fact of a one supreme universal power, which is Aum, the
+Absolute, and which must represent perfect love and perfect peace, since
+all who have glimpsed their unity with this power, testify to a feeling of
+happiness, peace and satisfaction, rare and exalted.
+
+By comparing the experience of those who have attained this state of
+liberation from illusion, through religious rites and ceremonies, or
+"sacrifice to God," as it is not infrequently called, with the experience
+of those who have recorded the phenomenon, apparently arriving at the goal
+through intellectual and moral aspiration, we will find that the results
+are almost identical, and the after-effects similar.
+
+It has been said that those who attain liberation have invariably sought to
+found a new system of worship, and this fact has given rise to the many
+paths or methods of attainment which have been taught by various Illumined
+Ones, both in the Orient and in the western world, supplementary as it were
+to the main great religious systems.
+
+We will take a short survey of a few of these systems in Japan and India in
+comparatively modern times, or at least during the last two thousand years,
+which is modern compared to the history of the Orient.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+EXAMPLES OF COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHO HAVE FOUNDED NEW SYSTEMS OF RELIGION
+
+
+The early religion of Japan, before the advent of Buddhism, was extremely
+simple.
+
+It consists of the postulate that there was but one God, _Kami_, from him
+all things came, and to him all things shall return. As has been stated
+previously, the chief injunction of Shintoism is: "Keep your body and your
+mind clean, and trust _Kami_."
+
+Shintoism literally translated, means "the way to God," and includes the
+belief that all persons ultimately reach the place where God dwells, and
+become "one with Him."
+
+In present day interpretations and descriptions of Shintoism, we read of
+the "heathen" belief that _Kami_ himself dwells in person, in the "inner
+temple" or sacred place of Shinto temples.
+
+This idea doubtless exists as a reality among the very ignorant
+superstitious devotees, much as among the ignorant Catholics we find the
+unquestioned belief that the actual body and blood of Jesus the Christ is
+contained in the Eucharist.
+
+The Shinto temple always contains an "inner or sacred shrine," which is
+equivalent to the "holy of holies," of the Mystic Brotherhoods, and
+typifies the fact that _within_ and not _without_, will be found the God in
+man, by finding which, man reaches liberation, or cessation from the cycle
+of births and deaths.
+
+A Shinto funeral is an occasion for rejoicing, because the departed one may
+be a step farther on the way to God, and since his ancestors were directly
+responsible, as a favor, for his occasion to become reborn, thus fulfilling
+the law of _karma_, the Shintoist pays much respect to his ancestors.
+
+The advent of Buddhism into Japan was made possible by the simple fact that
+the people were becoming somewhat disgruntled with Shintoism, because of
+its emphasis upon the never-to-be questioned postulate that the Mikado and
+his progeny was the direct gift of _Kami_ to his people, to be obeyed
+without demur, and to be adored as divine.
+
+Several generations of Mikados who did not fulfil the ideal of Deity--an
+ideal to which even savages attach the qualities of justice and mercy--left
+the masses ready and eager to grasp at a religion that gave them some other
+personified god, than the Mikado, much as a drowning man clutches at a
+straw.
+
+The Lord Buddha was a prince, therefore worship of him would not be an
+absolutely impossible step--an unforgivable breach of contract with the
+Mikado, and as he exhibited the qualities of humility and mercy and
+tolerance, he was welcomed. The religion of Japan is to-day regarded as
+Buddhistic, although the Imperial family, and consequently the army and the
+navy are to all outward appearance, Shintoists.
+
+Coming, then, to a consideration of the varying sects of Buddhism in Japan,
+and the corresponding sects in India, we find that there have been nine
+different incarnations of God, and that another, and, it is believed the
+final one, is expected.
+
+The intelligent and open minded seeker after truth of whatever race or
+color, will find in the instructions given man by each and every great
+teacher, whether we believe in them as especially "divine" or as mere
+humans who have attained to the realization of their godhood (_avatars,_) a
+complete unity of _purpose_, and if these teachers differ in _method of
+attainment_, it is only because of the immutable fact that there can be no
+_one and only_ way of attainment.
+
+Methods and systems are established consistently with the age and character
+of those whom they are designed to assist in finding the way.
+
+And again we must emphasize the fact that by the phrase "the way," we mean
+the way to a realization of the godhood within the inner temple of man's
+threefold nature.
+
+Thus, the intelligent, unprejudiced student of the religions and
+philosophies of all times and all races, will find that, while there are
+many and diverse paths to the goal of "salvation," the goal itself means
+unity with the Causeless Cause, wherein exists perfection.
+
+Perhaps it has been left for the expected Incarnate God, which Christians
+speak of as "the second coming of Christ," to make clear the problem as to
+whether this attainment or completement means an absorption of individual
+consciousness, or whether it will be an adding to the present incarnation,
+of the memory of past lives, in such a manner that no consciousness shall
+be lost, but all shall be found.
+
+In considering instances of cosmic consciousness, _mukti_, which have been
+recorded as distinctly religious experiences, and the effect of this
+attainment, the system best known to the Occident, is contained in the
+philosophy of Vedanta, expounded and interpreted to western understanding
+by the late Swami Vivekananda.
+
+But it should be understood that the philosophy taught by Vivekananda is
+not strictly orthodox Hinduism. It bears the same relation to the old
+religious systems of India that Unitarianism bears to orthodox Christianity
+such as we find in Catholicism, and its off-shoots.
+
+Vivekananda honored and revered and followed, according to his
+interpretation of the message, Sri Ramakrishna, whom an increasing number
+of Hindus regard as the latest incarnation of Aum--the Absolute. Not that
+the reader is to understand, that Sri Ramakrishna's message contradicted
+the essential character of the basic principles of orthodox Hinduism, as
+set down in the Vedas and the Upanashads.
+
+The same difference of _emphasis_ upon certain points, or interpretations
+of meaning exists in the Orient, as in the western world, in regard to the
+possible meaning of the Scriptures.
+
+Sri Ramakrishna, who passed from this earth life at Cossipore, in 1886, was
+a disciple of the Vedanta system, as founded by Vyasa, or by Badarayana,
+authorities failing to agree as to which of these traditional sages of
+India founded the Vedantic system of religion or philosophy.
+
+Vedanta, particularly as interpreted by Sri Ramakrishna and his successors,
+offers a wider field of effort, and a more intellectual consideration of
+Hindu religion than that of the Yoga system as interpreted from the
+original Sankhya system by Patanjali, about 300 B.C.
+
+Patanjali's sutras are considered the most complete system of Yoga
+practice, for the purpose of mental control, and psychic development.
+Patanjali's sutras are almost identical with those employed in the Zen sect
+of Buddhist monasteries, throughout Japan.
+
+These sutras, together with Buddhist mantrams will be considered in a
+subsequent chapter, devoted to the development of spiritual consciousness
+as taught by the Oriental sages and philosophers.
+
+One other great teacher of modern times who has left a large following, was
+Lord Gauranga, who was born in India in the early part of the fifteenth
+century. Gauranga was worshipped as the Lord God, whether with his consent,
+or without, it is not exactly clear, even though his biographers are united
+on the fact of his divine origin.
+
+Those who have espoused the message of Gauranga claim that he brought to
+the world "a beautiful religion, such as had never before been known." But,
+as this claim is made for all teachers and founders of religions and
+philosophies, we suggest that the reader compare the message of Lord
+Gauranga with those of other avatars and teachers.
+
+Lord Gauranga's message is known as Vaishnavitism, and we will here
+consider only those passages of his doctrine which shed light upon his
+attainment of cosmic consciousness. Certainly his breadth of mind, and his
+standards of tolerance, justice and consideration for all other systems of
+worship, would indicate his claim to cosmic consciousness.
+
+One of the contentions of the Vaishnavas is that they alone of all
+religious faiths, admit the divine birth and mission of the founders of all
+religions.
+
+Thus the Christians have declared that Jesus was the only Son of God; the
+Buddhists have claimed Buddha; the Hebrews have clung tenaciously to their
+prophets as the only true messengers from heaven, and the Mohammedans have
+refused, until the present century, to even sit at the table with the
+"infidels" who would not acknowledge Mohammed as the only true incarnation
+of Allah.
+
+It is well to remember that these claims have been made by the blind
+followers of these great teachers, and that it is almost certain that not
+any one of them made such claim for himself. Certainly he did not, if he
+had attained to spiritual consciousness.
+
+One passage from the doctrines of Gauranga is almost identical with many
+others who have sought to express the feeling of security, of
+_deathlessness_ which comes to the soul which has realized cosmic
+consciousness. He says:
+
+"My Beloved, whether you clasp me unto your heart, or you crush me by that
+embrace, it is all the same to me. For you are no other than my own, the
+sole partner of my soul."
+
+The gospel of Gauranga and his followers is, indeed, much more a gospel of
+love, than of methods of worship, or of intellectual research.
+
+The realization of our union with God, in deathless love, is the key-note
+of the message, and this great joy or bliss comes to the soul as soon as it
+has attained Illumination through love.
+
+God is alluded to in Vaishnavism most frequently as _Anandamaya_--meaning
+all joy. Vaishnavism more nearly resembles the gospel of Jesus, as taught
+by orthodoxy, than it does the Vedantic systems, since it does, not claim
+that God is _within each_ human organism, as the seed is within the fruit,
+but that, by love, we may gain heaven or the state or place where God
+dwells.
+
+"If you would worship God, as the Giver of Bounties, then shall the prayer
+be answered, and further connection cut off, God having answered the
+demand. So if you would worship God in simple love, He will send love. The
+real devotee seeks to establish a relationship with God which will endure.
+He will ask only to worship and love God, and pray that his soul may cling
+to God in divine reverence and love." Thus, say the Vaishnavas, "God serves
+as he is served, in absolute justice."
+
+Another salient point which the followers of Lord Gauranga emphasize, is
+the "All-Sweetness" of God. This idea is impressed, doubtless that the
+devotee may not feel an impossible barrier between himself and so great and
+all-powerful a being, as God, when His Omnipotence is considered. The idea
+is similar to that of the Roman church, which bids its untutored children
+to select some patron saint, or to say prayers to the Virgin Mary, because
+these characters were once human and seem to be nearer, and more
+approachable than the Great God whose Majesty and All-Mightiness have been
+exploited.
+
+Be that as it may, the fact remains, that Lord Gauranga is said to have
+earned the devotion and love of some of the most learned pundits of India
+and, according to a recent biographer, "he had all the frailties of a man;
+he ate and slept like a man. In short, he behaved generally like an
+ordinary human being, but yet he succeeded in extorting from the foremost
+sages of India, the worship and reverence due a God."
+
+The fact that Lord Gauranga "behaved like a man," is comforting, to say the
+least, and presages the coming of a day when "behaving like a man" will not
+be considered ungodly. When that time shall have arrived, surely there will
+be less mysticism of the hysterical variety and probably fewer hypocrites.
+
+Very unlike Lord Gauranga, is the report of a writer of India, who tells of
+the effects of cosmic consciousness upon Tukaram, considered to be one of
+the greatest saints and poets of Ancient India. Tukaram lived early in the
+sixteenth century, some years later than Lord Gauranga.
+
+This Maharashtra saint is chiefly remembered for his beautiful description
+of the effects of Illumination, in which he likens the human soul to the
+bride, and the bridegroom is God. This poem is called "Love's Lament," and
+might have been written by an impassioned lover to his promised bride.
+
+The life of Tukaram, like that of the late Sri Ramakrishna Paramanansa, was
+one long agony of yearning and struggle for that peace of soul which he
+craved. One of his chroniclers thus describes, in brief, the final struggle
+and the subsequent attainment of Illumination of this good man:
+
+"Selfless, he sought to gather no crowds of idle admiring disciples about
+him, but followed what his conscience dictated. He listened not to the
+counsel of his relatives and friends, who thought he had gone mad; and he
+bore in patience the well-meant but harsh rebukes of his second wife. After
+a long mental struggle, the agonies of which he has recorded in
+heart-rending words, now entreating God in the tenderest of terms, now
+resigning himself to despair, now appealing with the petulance of a pet
+child for what he deemed his birthright, now apologizing in all humility
+for thus taking liberties with his Mother-God, he succeeded at last in
+gaining a restful place of beatitude--a state in which he merged his soul
+in the universal soul,"--that is, Illumination, or cosmic consciousness.
+
+Sadasiva Brahman, one of the great Siddhas, and a comparatively modern sage
+of India, left a Sanskrit poem called _Atmavidyavilasa_, which gives a
+comprehensive description of the experience and the effects of
+Illumination, as for example:
+
+"The sage whose mind by the grace of his blessed Guru is merged in his own
+true nature (Existence, Intelligence, and Bliss Absolute), that great
+Illumined one, wise, with all egotism suppressed, and extremely delighted
+_within himself_, sports in joy."
+
+"He who is himself alone, who has known the secret of bliss, who has firmly
+embraced peace, who is magnanimous and whose feelings other than those of
+the _atman_, have been allayed, that person sports on his pleasant couch of
+self-bliss."
+
+"The pure moon of the prince of recluses, who is fit to be worshipped by
+gods and whose moonlight of intelligence that dispels the darkness of
+ignorance causes the lily of the earth to blossom, shines forth in the
+abode of the all-pervading Essence of Light."
+
+The above stanzas represent a more impersonal idea of the bliss of
+attainment than those of many others who have experienced Illumination, but
+they emphasize the same point that we find throughout all writings of the
+Illuminati, namely, the realization of the kingdom _within_, rather than
+without, and the necessity of selflessness--meaning the subjugation of the
+lesser self, the mental, to the soul.
+
+We come now to a consideration of the life and character of the Lord
+Buddha, whose influence is still stronger in all parts of the world than
+that of any other person who has ever taught the precepts of attainment.
+
+In Japan, for example, Buddhism, in its various branches, or
+interpretations, is the religion of the vast majority and even where
+Shintoism is the method of worship, the influence of Buddhism may be seen.
+So too, we find in Japan, a form of Buddhism, which shows evidences of the
+influence of Shintoism, but I think it may be admitted that Japan, above
+all other countries, represents to-day, the religion of Buddhism.
+
+Buddhism has been called the "religion of enlightenment," but the term
+"illumination" as it is used to describe the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, is what is meant, rather than the purely intellectual
+quality which we are accustomed to think of as enlightenment.
+
+Sakyamuni, another name for Buddhism, means also illumination, or
+realization of the saving character of the light within.
+
+The lamp is the most important symbol in, Buddhism, as it typifies the
+divine flame or illumination (which is cosmic consciousness), as the goal
+of the disciple.
+
+Another interpretation of the symbol of the lamp, is that of the power of
+the lamp to shed its rays to light the way of those who are traveling "in
+the gloom," and by so doing, it lights the flame of illumination in others,
+without diminishing its own power. An article of faith reads:
+
+"As one holds out a lamp in the darkness that those who have eyes may see
+the objects, even so has the doctrine been made clear by the Lord in
+manifold exposition."
+
+Again, in the _Book of the Great Decease_, we learn that Buddha admonished
+his disciples to "dwell as lamps unto yourselves." Another symbol used
+throughout Japan as a means of teaching the masses the essential doctrines
+of "The Compassionate One," has become familiar to occidental people as a
+sort of "curio." It is that of the three monkeys carved in wood or ivory.
+
+One monkey is covering his eyes with both paws; another has stopped his
+ears; and the third has his paw pressed tightly over his mouth. The lesson
+briefly told is to "see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil," and the
+reason that the monkey is employed as the symbol, is because the monkey,
+more than any other animal, resembles primitive man. If, then, we would
+rise from the monkey, or animal condition (the physical or animal part of
+the human organism), we must avoid a karma of consciousness of evil.
+
+Buddhism is full of symbolism, and these symbols must be interpreted
+according to the age, or of the individual consciousness of the
+interpreter, or the translator. But the fundamental doctrine of Buddha is
+essentially one of renunciation as applied to the things of the world.
+Nevertheless this quality of renunciation has been greatly exaggerated
+during the centuries, because of the fact that the Lord Buddha had so much
+to give up, viewed from the standpoint of worldly ethics.
+
+In the following "sayings of Buddha," we find that the quest of the noble
+sage was for that supraconsciousness wherein change and decay were _not_,
+rather than that he regarded the things of the senses, as sinful. For
+example:
+
+"It is not that I am careless about beauty, or am ignorant of human joys;
+but only that I see on all the impress of change; therefore, my heart is
+sad and heavy." Or this:
+
+"A hollow compliance and a protesting heart, such method is not for me to
+follow: I now will seek a noble law, unlike the worldly methods known to
+men. I will oppose disease, and change and death, and strive against the
+mischief wrought by these, on men."
+
+According to the _Samyutta Nikaya_, the twelve _Nidanas_ (or chain of
+consequences) are:
+
+"On ignorance depends karma;
+
+"On karma depends consciousness;
+
+"On consciousness depends name and form;
+
+"On name and form depends the six organs of sense."
+
+"On contact depends sensation;
+
+"On sensation depends desire;
+
+"On desire depends attachment;
+
+"On attachment depends existence;
+
+"On existence depends birth;
+
+"On birth depend old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and
+despair.
+
+"Thus does this entire aggregation of misery arise."
+
+Having arrived at this conclusion, the problem may be solved by learning
+how to avoid existence. But, let us consider what the term "existence"
+means. The common acceptance of the word, as used in the English, seems to
+include _being_; but if we will consider the word in its literal meaning,
+when analyzed, we find that it comes from "est" (to be), and the prefix
+"ex," meaning actually "_not-being_."
+
+The word _Being_, is a synonym for eternal life--for Deity. It does not
+savor of anything that has been created, or that will terminate. _Being
+is_, therefore, to cease to _ex_-ist, is to cease to live under the spell
+of the illusory and changing quality of _maya_, or externality.
+
+Far from meaning to be "wiped out," or absorbed into The Absolute, in the
+sense of complete loss of consciousness, it means the eternal retention of
+consciousness, unhampered by the delusion of sense as a reality.
+
+To escape from this chain of illusory ideas,
+and their consequences, the obvious necessity is
+to claim the soul's right to _Being_. This is done
+by dispelling ignorance (_A-vidya_) by vidya
+(knowledge). Thus karma ceases:
+
+"On the cessation of karma ceases consciousness of self;
+
+"On the cessation of this consciousness of self, cease name and form;
+
+"On the cessation of name and form, cease the organs of sense;
+
+"On the cessation of sense, ceases contact;
+
+"On the cessation of contact, ceases sensation;
+
+"On the cessation of sensation, ceases desire;
+
+"On the cessation of desire ceases attachment;
+
+"On the cessation of attachment ceases existence;
+
+"On the cessation of existence, ceases birth.
+
+"On the cessation of birth cease old age, and death; sorrow; lamentation;
+misery; grief and despair. Thus does the entire aggregation of misery
+cease."
+
+But, as to the exact interpretation of all these, Buddha himself says:
+
+"Ye must rely upon the truth; this is your highest, strongest vantage
+ground; the foolish masters practicing superficial wisdom, grasp not the
+meaning of the truth; but to receive the law, not skillfully to handle
+words and sentences, the meaning then is hard to know, as in the
+night-time, if traveling and seeking for a house, if all be dark within,
+how difficult to find."
+
+But let it be understood, that Buddhism as now taught and practiced is
+necessarily colored by the effect of the centuries which have elapsed since
+the Lord Buddha lived and taught the precepts of his Illumination. Modern
+Buddhism, as a religious system of worship bears the same relation to
+Prince Siddhartha, as does modern Christianity to Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+A short review of the life and character of the personalities around whom
+the great religious systems of the world have been formed will aid us in
+perceiving the unity of thought and character of the Illumined, and the
+similarity of reports as to the effect of this realization of cosmic
+consciousness will be apparent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSES, THE LAW-GIVER
+
+
+The salient feature of the law as given by Moses unto his people, the Jews,
+is that of strict cleanliness of mind and body. In this we find a
+similarity to the oft-repeated behest of Gautama, the Buddha, who
+constantly admonished his followers to keep their hearts pure and their
+minds and bodies clean.
+
+This spirit of cleanliness finds also a counterpart in the saying ascribed
+to Jesus, "blessed are the pure in heart."
+
+The cleanliness here referred to is doubtless not so much physical neatness
+as mental purity of thought--thought free from doubt and calumny and petty
+deceits and hypocrisy and selfishness and debasing perversions of the life
+forces; but during various stages of history we find that all teachings
+have their esoteric and their exoteric application.
+
+The law, as enunciated by Moses, according to the Jewish reports, laid much
+stress upon physical cleanliness, as an attribute of godhood.
+
+But Moses, if we may credit reports, was something far more inspired and
+illumined than a mere physical culturist--commendable as is personal
+cleanliness--and his admonitions were the result of that fine sense of
+discrimination and enlightenment which comes from cosmic perception even if
+he had not experienced the deeper, fuller realization of liberation, of
+which Buddha is a shining example.
+
+It is evident that the laws laid down by Moses were taught and practised by
+the Egyptians many many years prior to the time in which Moses lived, which
+from the most reliable authorities, must have been about four to five
+hundred years before the Exodus.
+
+This does not detract from the evidence that the great Egyptian-Hebrew, was
+a man of wonderful intellectual attainments, and from what we know of
+modern examples of Illumination, he also possessed a degree of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+The story of the seemingly miraculous birth of Moses, and the mystery with
+which his ancestry is surrounded, is also typical of one who has attained
+to cosmic consciousness.
+
+The Illumined one realizes his birthlessness and his deathlessness, and
+expresses it in symbolism, meaning of course, the realization that as the
+spirit is never born and can never die, the idea of age is an
+unreality--and should find no place in the consciousness of one who regards
+himself as an indestructible atom of the Cosmos.
+
+But the evidences regarding the probable Illumination of Moses are to be
+found in the reports of his ascension of Mt. Sinai, and what occurred
+there.
+
+The phenomenon of the great light which is inseparable from instances of
+cosmic consciousness, and which gives to the phenomenon its name
+"Illumination," was apparently marked in the case of Moses.
+
+The "burning bush," which he describes is the experience of the mind when
+the illusion of sense has ceased, even temporarily, to obscure the mental
+vision.
+
+"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, and out of
+the midst of a bush; and he looked and behold, the bush burned with fire
+and the bush was not consumed."
+
+There is a subtler interpretation to this report than that usually given,
+even by those who realize that this expression is an evidence of the sudden
+influx of supra consciousness which attends the soul's liberation from the
+limits of sense consciousness.
+
+The "burning bush" is synonymous with the "tree of life" which is ever
+alive with the "fires of creation."
+
+All who realize liberation are endowed with the power to understand this
+symbol. For those who have not attained to this degree of consciousness,
+the esoteric meaning is necessarily hidden.
+
+The phenomenon of the strange mystical light which seems to enfold and
+bathe the Illumined one, is concisely expressed in the case of Moses.
+
+"And it came to pass, that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the
+tablets of the testimony in hand, that Moses wist not that the skin of his
+face shone, or sent forth beams by reason of his speaking with Him.
+
+"And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses behold! the skin
+of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him."
+
+Again we find in the case of Moses, a momentary fear of the phenomenon
+which he was experiencing, in the influx of light and the sound of the
+voice which seems to accompany the light.
+
+The interpretation given the words spoken, and the identity of the voice is
+ever dependent upon the time and character of the mind experiencing the
+Illumination.
+
+Thus Moses claims to have heard the voice of the God of the Hebrews, but
+the probabilities are, that the "voice" is the mental operations of the
+person experiencing the phenomenon of supra-consciousness, and this
+interpretation will vary with what Professor James calls the "historical
+determination," i.e. it is dependent upon the age in which the illumined
+one lived, and upon the character of the impressions previously absorbed.
+
+This apparent difference of report, as to the identity of the "voice," is
+of small import.
+
+The salient point is that each person relating his experience has heard a
+_voice_ giving more or less explicit instructions and promises.
+
+In each instance it has been characterized as the voice of the God of their
+desire, _and adoration_.
+
+Certainly, whatever may be our opinions as to whether God, as we understand
+the term, talked to Moses, giving him such explicit commands as the great
+leader afterwards laid down to his people accompanied by the insurmountable
+barrier to dissent or discussion, "thus saith the Lord," we can but admit
+that the prophet was possessed of intellectual power far in advance of his
+time, and his laws did indeed, save his people from self destruction,
+through uncleanliness and strife, and dense ignorance.
+
+The ten commandments have been the "word of God" to all men for lo! these
+many ages, and even Jesus could but add one other commandment to those
+already in use: "Another commandment give I unto you--_that ye love one
+another_."
+
+To sum up the evidences of cosmic consciousness, or Illumination, as
+reported in the case of Moses, we find:
+
+The experience of great light as seen on Horeb.
+
+The "voice" which he calls the voice of "The Lord."
+
+The sudden and momentary fear, and humility.
+
+The shining of his face and form, as though bathed in light.
+
+The subsequent intellectual superiority over those of his time.
+
+The perfect assurance and confidence of authority and "salvation."
+
+The desire for solitude, which caused him to die alone in the vale of Moab.
+
+The intense desire to uplift his people to a higher consciousness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GAUTAMA--THE COMPASSIONATE
+
+
+Gautama, prince of the house of Siddhartha, of the Sakya class, was born in
+northern India in the township of Kapilavastu, in the year 556 B.C.,
+according to the best authorities, as interpreted and reported by Max
+Muller.
+
+The Japanese tradition agrees with this, practically, stating that O Shaka
+Sama (signifying one born of wisdom and love) was born as a Kotai Si, crown
+prince of the Maghada country.
+
+We have the assurance that as a youth, Gautama, like Jesus, exhibited a
+serious mindedness and an insight into matters spiritual, which astonished
+and dumbfounded his hearers, and the sages who gave him respectful
+attention.
+
+Some accounts even go so far as to state that at the very moment of his
+birth the young prince was able to speak, and that his words ascended "even
+to the gods of the uppermost Brahma-world."
+
+Divesting the traditions that surround the birth and early life of the
+world's great masters, of much that has been interpolated by a designing
+priesthood, we may yet conclude that a certain seriousness, and a deep
+sympathy with the sorrows of their fellowmen, would naturally characterize
+these inspired ones, even while they were still in their early youth.
+
+It is evident that the young Prince Siddhartha was subject to meditation
+and that these meditations led at times to complete trance.
+
+It is reported that one day while out riding in all the pomp and
+accoutrements of the son of a ruling king, he was visited by an angel (a
+messenger from the gods of Devachan), and told that if he would lessen
+the sorrows of the world that he must renounce his right to his father's
+kingdom and go into the jungle, becoming a hermit, and devoting his life to
+fasting, prayer and meditation, in order to fit himself for the work of
+preaching the "way of liberation," which consisted of, first of all, to
+take no life; be pure in mind; be as the humblest, which latter admonition
+found little favor with the world of his personal environment where caste
+was and still is, a seemingly ineradicable race-thought.
+
+The sorrows of humanity weighed heavily upon his heart, and the
+superficialities of the wealthy and ostentatious court in which he lived,
+irked his outspoken and truth-loving spirit.
+
+Surrounded, as he was, by wealth and ease, with time for contemplation and
+a mind given to philosophic speculation, the young prince found no sense of
+comfort or permanent satisfaction in his own immunity from want and sorrow.
+He pondered long upon the way to become freed from the "successive round of
+births and deaths," and thus pondering, he sought solitude in which to find
+his questions answered.
+
+Fasting and penance have ever been the gist of the instruction given to
+those who would "find the way to God," and so to this end Gautama fasted
+and prayed, and practised self-sacrifice.
+
+But the attainment of liberation was not easy, and Siddhartha suffered long
+and practiced self-mortification assiduously, at length being rewarded; and
+"there arose within him the eye to perceive the great and noble truths
+which had been handed down; the knowledge of their nature; the
+understanding of their cause; the wisdom that lights the true path; the
+light that expels darkness."
+
+The terrible struggle which characterized the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, by so many of the sages and saviours of history, is, we
+believe, clue to the fact that no one individual may hope to rise so
+immeasurably above the plane of the race-consciousness of his day and age,
+except through intense and overwhelming desire.
+
+Gautama abandoned his heritage, his relatives, his wife to whom he was
+devoted, and his infant son, as we have previously stated, not because
+Illumination is purchasable at so terrible a price, but because his desire
+to _know_ transcended all other desires, and in order to be free from the
+demands made upon him, he must of necessity, seek solitude.
+
+Few examples of the attainment of cosmic consciousness are as complete and
+of such fullness, as that attained by Buddha, and no instance which history
+affords has left so great an effect upon the world.
+
+It is estimated that at least one-third of the human race are Buddhists.
+This is not saying that any such number of persons are like unto Buddha,
+nor do we contend that this is any evidence that his message is greater or
+more fraught with truth than that of other illumined ones.
+
+The intelligent student of occultism in all its phases will arrive, sooner
+or later, at the inevitable conclusion that all illumined souls have seen
+and have taught the same fundamental truth.
+
+Buddha was convinced that in The Absolute, or First Cause, there could be
+no sin and consequently no sorrow, and he persistently sought to inaugurate
+such systems of conduct and such a standard of morals as would lead the
+disciple back to godhood, or liberation from the "wheel of causation."
+
+To keep the mind pure and clean was the burden of his cry, well knowing
+that the mind is the fertile field wherein illusions of sense consciousness
+thrive. He says:
+
+"Mind is the root (of evil); actions proceed from the mind. If anyone speak
+or act from a corrupt mind, suffering will follow, as the dust follows the
+rolling wheel."
+
+That we can not expect to escape the result of our thoughts and acts was
+ever a doctrine of Buddha, albeit, he seems also to have sought to make
+clear to his disciples, the UNREALITY of sin as a part of the
+indestructible "First Cause."
+
+Many Buddhist sects interpret the doctrines of Buddha to deny a belief in
+a future existence, in at least as far as identity is concerned, but this
+conception is not consistent with the most reliable reports, neither is it
+in keeping with the extreme peace and satisfaction which all illumined ones
+experience.
+
+If extinction of identity were the goal of Illumination, it is
+inconceivable that the illumined ones should report the attainment of
+perfect satisfaction and bliss.
+
+Besides, it is clearly stated that Gautama told his disciples that he had
+already entered Nirvana, while yet in the body.
+
+"My mind is free from passions; is released from the follies of the world.
+I have gained the victory," said Lord Buddha to his disciple Ananda.
+
+It is also asserted that Buddha appeared in his own "glorified body" to
+his disciples after his physical dissolution, plainly indicating that far
+from being swallowed up in The Absolute, he had acquired godhood in his
+present body.
+
+Detailing the advantages of a pure life, Buddha said to his disciples:
+
+"The virtuous man rejoices in this world, and he will rejoice in the next;
+in both worlds has he joy. He rejoices, he exults, seeing the purity of his
+deed."
+
+Again, alluding to a sage (rahan), Buddha is reported to have said:
+
+"He is indeed blest, having conquered all his passions, and attained the
+state of Nirvana."
+
+This alluded to the acquisition of _Nirvana_ while still in the physical
+body. In other words, as we of this century understand the teaching, he
+had experienced cosmic consciousness.
+
+The modern version of the commandments of Buddha are almost identical with
+those of the Christian creed, and these commandments are, as we have
+previously observed, the same that Moses laid down for the guidance of his
+people. That they were old before Moses was born, is also more than
+problematical.
+
+It is also more than probable that Buddha did not personally write the
+ethical code which we now find submitted as the "Commandments of Buddha,"
+but that Buddha merely emphasized them.
+
+These commandments are not, however, understood, by the intelligent
+Buddhist as "sacred," in the sense that "God spoke unto Buddha."
+
+Moses doubtless assumed to have been divinely instructed in the law,
+although that supposition may be erroneous. He may have had in mind the
+same fundamental idea which all those expressing cosmic consciousness have
+had, that of being a mouthpiece of a higher power, rather than to attract
+to themselves any adulation or worship, as being specially divine.
+
+The "Commandments," therefore, as translated and ascribed to modern
+Buddhism, are an ethical and moral code for the _MORTAL_ consciousness,
+rather than a _formula_ for developing cosmic consciousness. These
+commandments are:
+
+1--Thou shalt kill no animal whatever, from the meanest insect up to man.
+
+2--Thou shalt not steal.
+
+3--Thou shalt not violate the wife of another.
+
+4--Thou shalt speak no word that is false.
+
+5--Thou shalt not drink wine, nor anything that may intoxicate.
+
+6--Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred and bitter
+language.
+
+7--Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk, but shall do all for
+others.
+
+8--Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.
+
+9--Thou shalt not harbor envy, nor pride, nor revenge, nor malice, nor the
+desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune.
+
+10--Thou shalt not follow the doctrines of false gods.
+
+And the devotee is assured, even as in the Christian creed, that "he who
+keeps these commandments, shall enter Nirvana--the rest of Buddha." But let
+it be understood that Gautama, the Lord Buddha, did not formulate these
+commandments. Neither are they considered as infallible formulae, by the
+enlightened Buddhist.
+
+They constitute the ethical and moral code of the undeveloped man in all
+ages of the world, and among all peoples. They had become traditional long
+before Buddha came to interpret "the way of the gods." But Gautama, like
+Jesus, was an evolutionist, and not a revolutionist. He came "not to
+destroy, but to fulfill," and so Buddha paid no attention to the code of
+morals as it stood, but merely contented himself with emphasizing the
+importance of unselfishness--purity of heart and mind, because he realized
+that the mental world is the trap of the soul, even as "the elephant is
+held tethered by a galucchi creeper."
+
+Buddha taught the way of emancipation of the soul held in bondage by means
+of the illusions of _maya_, even as the elephant is held in captivity by so
+weak a thing as a galucchi creeper, which could be broken by a single
+effort.
+
+That many who keep the commandments are yet a long way from cosmic
+consciousness must be apparent to all. Therefore we are justified in
+assuming that the mere keeping of the commandments will not bring about
+_mukti_. Many a man follows the letter of the law, and escapes prison, but
+if he does this through fear of punishment, and not because of a desire to
+maintain peace that his neighbors may be benefited, then he is not keeping
+the spirit of the law at all, and his reward is a negative one.
+
+According to the most reliable authorities, Buddha died in his eightieth
+year, having spent about fifty years in preaching, in healing the sick, in
+conversing with exalted beings in the heavenly worlds, and in leaving at
+will his physical body and visiting other worlds.
+
+Buddha prophesied his coming dissolution, and expressed to his disciples, a
+hope that they would realize that he still lived, even when his physical
+body should have become ashes.
+
+As his last hour approached, Buddha summoned his disciples, and after a
+moment's silent meditation, he addressed himself to Ananda, his relative;
+as well as his favorite disciple, thus:
+
+"When I shall have disappeared from this state of existence, and be no
+longer with you, do not believe that the Buddha has left you, and ceased to
+dwell among you. Do not think therefore, nor believe, that the Buddha has
+disappeared, and is no more with you."
+
+From these words, it is evident that the state of Nirvana which Buddha
+assured his followers that he had already attained, did not argue loss of
+identity, nor translation to another planet.
+
+Nor is there anywhere in the sayings of Buddha, rightly interpreted, any
+suggestion of expecting or desiring personal worship. This, the great sage
+particularly avoided, as indeed have all illumined ones.
+
+It is evident that Gautama the Buddha had experienced that divine influx of
+light and wisdom in which he sought for others the happiness he had gained
+for himself, and to this end he was eager to leave to his friends and
+disciples such rules of conduct of life as should aid them in attaining the
+divine peace that comes from illumination.
+
+But that he founded a religious system of worship of himself, is wholly
+unbelievable in the light of a study of comparative religions and the
+wisdom which illumination confers.
+
+To realize that one has attained to immortality, and claimed his
+birthright of godhood, is not synonymous with the claim to worship as the
+one eternal source of life.
+
+It is a part of human weakness to insist upon idealizing the personality of
+a teacher, and this tendency becomes in time merged into actual worship,
+whereas the teacher, if he or she be truly illumined, seeks only to
+inculcate the philosophy which will bring his faithful followers into a
+realization of cosmic consciousness.
+
+The points which characterize the person who has experienced a degree of
+illumination (entered into cosmic consciousness), were particularly evident
+in the life and character of Gautama, the Buddha. They may be summed up
+thus:
+
+A marked seriousness in youth.
+
+A great sympathy and compassion with the sorrows of others.
+
+A deep tenderness for all forms of life.
+
+A realization of the nothingness of caste and pomp and power.
+
+The firm conviction that he was instructed by angels.
+
+The wonderful magnetism and illumination of his person.
+
+The firm conviction of immortality--released from the "wheel of life" as
+he expressed it.
+
+The knowledge of when and where he was to pass out from the life of the
+body.
+
+The love of solitude and meditation. The intellectual power maintained even
+into old age.
+
+The unselfish desire to help others.
+
+Great and never-failing sympathy with suffering, a divine patience, and
+insight into the hearts of all forms of life, earned for this great soul
+the name "Buddha--The Compassionate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JESUS OF NAZARETH
+
+
+Turning now to the next in order of the world's great masters, or illumined
+ones, we come to a consideration of Jesus of Nazareth, in whose name the
+great moral system of religion, called "Christianity," is promulgated.
+
+It has been conclusively shown that the essential features of the
+present-day _system_ of religion, known as Christianity, were instituted by
+Paul rather than by Jesus, and that the system itself, like Buddhism, is
+the work of the followers of the great teacher, rather than that of the
+Master.
+
+Our present concern, however, is not with the system or method of the
+church, but with those historic facts which bear upon the question of the
+Illumination of Jesus, classifying Him, not as an incarnate son of God, in
+the accepted theological interpretation, but in the light of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+Jesus the Christ was born, according to the most reliable authorities,
+about six hundred years after Gautama, the Buddha.
+
+Whether or not the Nazarene was familiar with the Buddhist doctrines or
+whether He spent the years of His life which are shrouded in mystery, in
+the inner temples of either Thibet, India, Persia, China, or other oriental
+country, will doubtless always be a disputed point among controversialists.
+
+The fact does not matter, either way.
+
+There is an encouraging similarity in the fundamentals of all religious
+precepts, arguing that when a teacher is really inspired, the truth makes
+friends with him or her.
+
+Some writers on the subject of Illumination give exact dates when the flash
+of cosmic consciousness came to the various teachers of the world, but
+these dates are problematical, and they are also inconsequential.
+
+That Jesus was among those historic characters who had attained cosmic
+consciousness, there can be no possible doubt, even though his exact words
+will be disputed.
+
+Enough has come down to us through the ages to prove the fact that Jesus
+knew and taught the illusory character of external life (_maya_) and that
+he was himself absolutely certain of the "kingdom within," which he
+admonished his hearers to seek, rather than to live so much in the
+external. This he did because he well knew that constant dwelling in the
+external consciousness led not to liberation.
+
+_The light within_, was the substance of his cry, and that light, when
+perceived, leads to illumination of everything, both the within and the
+without.
+
+The transfiguration of Jesus was undoubtedly the effect of his being in a
+supra-conscious state, a state of exaltation, in which many mystics enter
+at more or less frequent intervals, according to their mode of life, and
+their objective environment.
+
+"And he was transfigured before them; and his garments became exceedingly
+white," we are told in the gospels, and there are many persons in the world
+to-day possessing the power of the inner or clairvoyant vision (not
+identical with cosmic consciousness), who have witnessed similar phenomena.
+
+In the "Sermon on the Mount," we find that Jesus spoke with such certainty
+and such authority, as one who had experienced the very essence of the
+cosmic conscious state, and was already freed from the illusions of the
+senses. His words, like those of all who have sought to give directions and
+instructions for the attainment of freedom from externality, are capable
+of interpretation in various ways, according to the degree of consciousness
+of the age in which the interpretations have been made.
+
+For example, we find these words of Jesus given different meanings, and in
+fact, there have been many and diverse discussions and conclusions as to
+exactly what the Master did mean by them:
+
+"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+
+Let us examine the phrase, and see if it accords with our ideas of cosmic
+consciousness. To be "poor in spirit," is not consistent with our
+understanding of the requirements for the expansion of the soul.
+
+Those who take this phrase literally, and who are opposed to religious
+concepts, as a factor in human betterment, are fond of using this phrase as
+an evidence of the fanaticism of Jesus, and his concurrence in the worldly
+habit of exploiting the poor, and "riding the backs of the wage slaves," as
+our Socialist brothers put it.
+
+Now let us, for a moment, consider the phrase _as a person who possessed
+cosmic consciousness would have said it_.
+
+One possessing the cosmic sense, viewing the external more as a trap of the
+senses, than as realities, would readily perceive that to amass wealth
+(external possessions), the mind must be in harmony with the methods and
+the ideals of the world, rather than that it should be concentrated upon
+the "things of the spirit."
+
+This idea is expressed in the phrase, "no man can serve two masters,"
+and while we are not prepared to say that the possession of worldly
+goods is absolutely _impossible_ to the attainment of cosmic
+consciousness--observation, reflection, and intuition will unite in the
+conclusion that they are more or less _improbable_.
+
+If then, we will interpret these sayings of Jesus in the light of a broader
+outlook than was possible to the understanding of his chroniclers, we will
+find that what he doubtless said was:
+
+"_Blessed in spirit_ are the poor, for theirs shall be the kingdom of
+heaven."
+
+And in his vision, which extended beyond the times in which he lived, and
+foresaw that the attainment of cosmic consciousness must involve a degree
+of physical hardship, he said:
+
+"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
+theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
+
+A survey of the world's progress will readily prove the fact that those who
+have bent their talents and their energies toward the uplift of the race,
+have done so under great stress, and in the face of persistent opposition.
+
+This opposition is an accompaniment to altruistic effort, for the very
+obvious reason that the race-thought of the world is still materialistic.
+
+The thoughts that predominate are commercial. This is due to the fact that
+those who are wealthy have large financial interests to maintain; business
+problems to solve; that take about all their time. The poor find the
+maintenance of physical existence a task that absorbs the greater part of
+their mortal mind, and therefore, those who are devoting their time and
+talents to the work of regeneration (the coming of the cosmic sense), are
+necessarily in the minority, and the majority rules in thought, as in act.
+
+The present metaphysical movement lays great stress upon worldly success
+and "attraction" of wealth, as an evidence of possession of power and
+truth, but the law of equation proves that we obtain _that which we most
+desire_. A religious system which amasses great wealth in a short time does
+so, only because its _dominant_ teaching inspires the desire for worldly
+advancement, as the _prime requisite_.
+
+The same is true of an individual, as of a system.
+
+Not that the attainment of cosmic consciousness is absolutely impossible to
+a rich man, because a man may inherit riches and position and power, as in
+the case of Prince Siddhartha, the Lord Buddha; or he may have set in
+motion certain currents of desire for wealth, and later in life may change
+that desire, when naturally, the "business" he has created will follow the
+law which instigated it, and increasing wealth will result.
+
+But, let it be known, that Buddha renounced all his possessions, and there
+are many instances to-day of renunciation of worldly life and wealth, in
+order to attain to that supreme consciousness in which the illumined one
+possesses all that he desires, even though he have but one coat to his
+back.
+
+Let it not be thought that we mean to infer that God is partial to poverty,
+and that the rich man will be excluded from the attainment of the kingdom,
+merely because of his riches; but if riches be any man's aim, then
+assuredly he cannot "serve two masters" and it will not be possible for him
+to become illumined while in pursuit of worldly goods.
+
+Jesus said:
+
+"It is easier for a camel to go through the needle's eye, than for a rich
+man to enter the kingdom of heaven."
+
+It is now thoroughly established that the "Needle's Eye" was the name given
+to a certain narrow and difficult pass through which camels bearing heavy
+burdens, could not find room to pass, and Jesus sought to convey to his
+hearers the truth that persons bearing in their mental desires the load
+of many possessions, would hardly find room for the one supreme desire
+which would bring them into the kingdom (the possession of cosmic
+consciousness).
+
+But the most significant of the utterances of the illumined Nazarene is the
+one in which he said:
+
+"Except ye become as little children, ye can in no wise enter the kingdom
+of heaven."
+
+The possession of cosmic consciousness brings with it, invariably, the
+simplicity, the faith and _innocence_ of a little child. The child is
+pleased with natural pleasures, and does not know the worldly standard of
+valuation. And above all, the soul, while still attached to the physical
+body, is like a little child.
+
+The attainment of cosmic consciousness is possible only to one who has
+first "got acquainted with his soul"; when we are really soul-conscious we
+possess the innocence (not ignorance), of a little child, and we also
+possess a child's wisdom. We are, in other words, "as wise as the serpent
+and as harmless as the dove." Wisdom brings with it harmlessness. The truly
+wise person would not wilfully harm any living thing; wisdom knows no
+revenge; no "eye for an eye" philosophy; makes no demands.
+
+And what may be considered the second most significant remark of the Master
+_is_ this:
+
+"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say Lo,
+here; or Lo, there, for Lo, the kingdom of heaven is within you."
+
+Jesus, although forced by the conventions of the time in which he taught to
+conform to the laws laid down by the scribes and Pharisees, influenced by
+the strict views of the Israelites, who honored the law laid down by Moses
+and the prophets, still possessed cosmic consciousness to such an extent
+that he knew the folly of judging others by outward appearance, and also
+of promising them cosmic consciousness in return for obedience to
+prescribed rules or commandments.
+
+When it would seem to his critics that he did not sufficiently emphasize
+the traditional laws, that he was seemingly making it too simple and too
+easy for people to live, they sought to trap him into a statement that
+would oppose the accepted commandments.
+
+But this Jesus steadfastly refused to do. "I came not to destroy the law,
+but to fulfill it," he said.
+
+Like all those who have experienced cosmic consciousness, his policy was
+one of construction, and not of destruction. Evolution accomplishes
+peacefully what revolution seeks to do by force.
+
+Jesus laid little stress upon the commandments as they stood. He neither
+sought to emphasize them, nor to criticise them. All that he said was:
+
+"A new commandment give I unto you: that ye love one another."
+
+All truly illumined minds have made love the basis of their teaching, well
+knowing that where true love reigns there can be no destruction.
+
+Love conquers fear--the arch-enemy of mankind.
+
+Love makes it impossible to harm the thing loved, and universal love would
+make it impossible, for one experiencing it, to consciously bring the
+slightest pain to any living thing.
+
+Therefore Jesus taught repeatedly the doctrine of love, and he made no new
+commandments other than this.
+
+It has been said that inasmuch as Jesus laid greater emphasis upon this one
+great need than had any previous inspired teacher, he deserves greater
+honor.
+
+Theologians whose purpose it is to promulgate the doctrine of Christianity
+as superior to others, use this argument in support of their contention
+that Jesus was the only true son of God.
+
+But this view will be recognized as prejudiced, and lacking in the very
+essentials taught and practiced by the Christ.
+
+In the light of Illumination, it will readily be perceived that all persons
+expressing any considerable degree of cosmic consciousness, have taught the
+same fundamental and simple truths, as witness the following:
+
+Do as you would be done by.--_Persian._
+
+Do not that to a neighbor which you would take ill from him.--_Grecian_.
+
+What you would not wish done to yourself, do not unto others.--_Chinese_.
+
+One should seek for others the happiness one desires for
+oneself.--_Buddhist_.
+
+He sought for others the good he desired for himself. Let him pass
+on.--_Egyptian_.
+
+All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do you even so to
+them.--_Christian_.
+
+Let none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would dislike to be
+treated.--_Mohammedan_.
+
+The true rule in life is to guard and do by the things of others as they do
+by their own.--_Hindu_.
+
+The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of
+society as themselves.--_Roman_.
+
+Whatsoever you do not wish your neighbor to do to you, do not unto him.
+This is the whole law. The rest is a mere exposition of it.--_Jewish_.
+
+While it is probable that Jesus gave no directions or methods of
+attainment, yet the records of his sayings give the clue to the character
+of his instruction to those of his students who were capable of
+understanding, particularly as shown in a recently discovered papyrus,
+authentically identified as belonging to the early Christians. This-papyrus
+was discovered by Egyptian explorers in 1904. Although the papyrus was more
+or less mutilated, the meaning is sufficiently clear to justify the
+translators in inserting certain words. However, we will here quote only
+such of the "sayings" as were decipherable, without having anything
+supplied by translators.
+
+Evidently having been asked when his kingdom should be realized on earth he
+answered:
+
+"When ye return to the state of innocence which existed before the fall"
+(i.e., when manifestation will be perceived in its illusory character, and
+the soul freed from the enchantment of the mortal consciousness).
+
+"I am come to end the sacrifices and if ye cease not from sacrificing, the
+wrath shall not cease from you."
+
+This evidently corresponds to his saying, "They who use the sword, shall
+perish by the sword."
+
+The conclusion is obvious that hate and destruction beget their kind, and
+that love is the only power that can prevent the continuation of
+destruction. This may with equal logic, be applied to the sacrifice of
+animal and bird life for food, as well as the sacrifices of blood which
+formed a part of ancient ritual.
+
+His disciples said unto him:
+
+"When will thou be manifest to us, and when shall we see thee?"
+
+He saith:
+
+"When ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed."
+
+The time is near at hand, when the body will not be regarded as something
+vile and unworthy; something of which to be ashamed and to keep covered, as
+if God's handiwork were vile.
+
+In fact, the function of sex, from the extreme of ancient sex worship to
+the present extreme of sex degradation, shall soon be established in its
+rightful place. It is not the purpose of this book to deal with this
+important subject, so we will say no more here.
+
+Nevertheless, this saying attributed to Jesus, the Christ, resurrected as
+it has been in this century, is timely. It is almost universally conceded
+that the time of the "Second Coming of Christ" is already at hand. Just
+what this second coming means, is interpreted differently by theologians,
+philosophers, scientists, poets and prophets, but there is a unanimous
+belief that the time is here and now.
+
+Those who have the comprehension to read the signs of the times, are
+cheerfully expectant of radical changes in our attitude toward the function
+of sex and the divinity of love.
+
+"When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male as
+the female, neither male nor female--these things if ye do, the kingdom of
+My Father shall come."
+
+Again, the meaning of these words depends upon the degree of illumination
+of the person reading them. They mean the present inevitable equality of
+the sexes, when each individual will count not as a mere man or a mere
+woman, but as an important factor in the world's redemption. Or, it will
+appeal to a few as the promised time when every soul which has completed
+the circle, ended its karma, and claimed its god-hood, unites with the soul
+of its mate, the two blending into one perfect whole--the Father-Mother God
+of the New Dispensation.
+
+Again we find in these newly discovered papyri a phrase bearing upon this
+subject:
+
+To the question of Salome:
+
+"How long shall death reign?" The Lord answered:
+
+"As long as ye women give birth. For I am come to make an end to the works
+of the woman."
+
+Then Salome said to him:
+
+"Then have I done well that I have not given birth?"
+
+To this the Lord replied:
+
+"Eat of every herb, but of the bitter one eat not."
+
+When Salome asked when it shall be known what she asked, the Lord said:
+
+"When you tread under foot the covering of shame, and when two is made one,
+and the male with the female, neither male nor female."
+
+"How be it, he who longs to be rich is like a man who drinketh sea water:
+the more he drinketh the more thirsty he becomes, and never leaves off
+drinking till he perish."
+
+"Blessed is he who also fasts that he may feed the poor, for it is more
+blessed to give than to receive."
+
+"Let thy alms sweat in thy hand until thou knowest to whom thou givest."
+
+It is not probable that any one who reads these words will make the mistake
+of assuming that Jesus advised us to inquire into the character or the
+antecedents of the one on whom we are to bestow a gift. Neither are we
+expected to ascertain whether he belongs to our "lodge" or not.
+
+If you give alms as though to an inferior; if you assume a self-righteous
+mind; if you give for hope of reward; then withhold your gift. In fact,
+unless you can realize that you are giving as though to yourself, keep your
+gift. It will do neither you nor the one receiving it, any good whatsoever.
+
+"Good things must come. He is blessed through whom they come."
+
+This presages the coming of the kingdom of love on earth, as a foregone
+conclusion. Yet, those who lend themselves _consciously_, as _servants_ of
+the cause--helpers in the establishment of the new order--are blessed.
+
+"Love covereth a multitude of sins, so be not joyful save when you look
+upon your brother's countenance in love."
+
+"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, for the greatest of crimes is
+this: if a man shall sadden his brother's spirit."
+
+"For our possessions are in heaven; therefore, sons of men, purchase unto
+yourselves by these transitory things which are not yours, _what is yours_,
+and shall not pass away."
+
+For the Lord has said in a mystery: "Unless ye make the right as the left;
+the left as the right; the top as the bottom; and the front as the
+backward, ye shall not know the kingdom of God."
+
+"Keep the flesh holy and the seal undented, that ye may receive eternal
+life."
+
+"If a man shall sadden his brother's spirit." This indeed is the greatest
+of all crimes, because out of man's inhumanity to man springs all the sin
+and sorrow of the world.
+
+"Unless ye make the right as the left; the top as the bottom; the front as
+the backward." The meaning should be clear enough and the words are worthy
+of the illumined mind of Jesus of Nazareth.
+
+The great sin is separation; segregation; "My and mine" as opposed to "Thee
+and thine." To the truly illumined one there can be no "mine," as distinct
+from another's.
+
+The sinner is no less my brother than is the saint. The beggar is as dear
+to me as is the rich man. Every man is a king. There are no "chosen of God"
+to the one who has entered cosmic consciousness.
+
+"For our possessions are in heaven. Use, therefore, the things of earth,
+while ye are living in the flesh (sons of men), in such a way and to such
+purpose that they will not enchain you in the maze of manifestation, and
+thereby require that you postpone your claim to immortality."
+
+This statement is distinct enough, as is also the one: "He who longs to be
+rich is like a man drinking sea water. The more he drinketh, the more
+thirsty he becomes and _never leaves off drinking until he perisheth_."
+
+The hypnotism of the external world is too well illustrated to need further
+comment. The man who enters upon the pursuit of worldly possessions;
+temporal power; personal ambition; thinking that when he shall have
+attained all these, then will he turn to the solution of the mystery of
+mysteries, finds himself caught in the trap of his desires, and he can not
+escape. He is under the spell of enchantment, wherein the unreal appears as
+real, and the real becomes the illusory.
+
+To sum up, the fragmentary accounts we have of the life and character of
+the man Jesus are conclusive proof that he had entered into full
+realization of cosmic consciousness.
+
+Like Lord Gautama, he appeared to his disciples after he had left the
+physical body, "glorified," as one who had taken on immortality.
+
+Nor was there ever, it would appear, any doubt in the mind of Jesus, of his
+right to godhood, while retaining, also, his self-consciousness.
+
+The intellectual superiority.
+
+The wonderful spiritual magnetism and attraction of his presence.
+
+The absolute, unwavering conviction of his mission, and of his immortality.
+
+The transfiguration, after his "temptation" and his prophetic vision.
+
+His great love and compassion for even his enemies.
+
+These are what made him indeed a Christ.
+
+The term "Christ" and the term "Buddha" are synonymous. They both mean one
+who has entered into his godhood. One who has attained to cosmic
+consciousness, leaving forever the limitations of the lower self.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PAUL OF TARSUS
+
+
+The system of worship known as Christianity owes its systematic foundation
+to Paul of Tarsus. Paul's sudden conversion from zealous persecution of the
+followers of Jesus of Nazareth to an equally zealous propaganda of the
+gospel of Light, offers a perfect example of the peculiar oncoming of
+cosmic consciousness.
+
+Paul evidently occupied a position of authority among the Jews and it is
+equally probable that he was near the same age as Jesus, as he is referred
+to as a "young man named Saul" in Bible accounts of the persecution of the
+early Christians. His illumination occurred shortly after the crucifixion,
+probably within two or three years.
+
+In Acts, chapter 8-9, we read:
+
+"And Saul was consenting unto his death (Stephen). And at that time there
+was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they
+were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria,
+except the apostles.
+
+"And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation
+over him.
+
+"As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and
+hailing men and women, committed them to prison.
+
+"And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings, and slaughter against the
+disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters
+to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether
+they were men or women, he might bring them bound, unto Jerusalem.
+
+"And as he journeyed he came near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shone
+round about him a light from heaven.
+
+"And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him: 'Saul, Saul,
+why persecutest thou me?'
+
+"And he said: 'Who art thou, Lord?' And the Lord said: 'I am Jesus, whom
+thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.'
+
+"And he trembling and astonished, said: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me do?'
+
+"And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the city, and it shall be
+told thee what thou must do.'
+
+"And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but
+seeing no man.
+
+"And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no
+man; but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
+
+"And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.
+
+"And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, and to him
+said the Lord in a vision: 'Ananias;' and he said: 'Lord, behold, I am
+here.' And the Lord said unto him: 'Arise and go into the street called
+Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus;
+for behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias
+coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.'
+Then Ananias answered: 'Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much
+evil he hath done by thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority
+from the high priests to bind all that call on thy name.' But the Lord said
+unto him: 'Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name
+before the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel. For I will show him
+how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.'
+
+"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his
+hands on him, said: 'Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto
+thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive
+thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.' And immediately there fell
+from his eyes, as it had been scales; and he received sight forthwith, and
+arose and was baptized."
+
+Like all those who have entered cosmic consciousness, Paul sought the
+blessing of solitude, that he might readjust himself to his changed
+viewpoint, since he now saw things in the light of the larger
+consciousness.
+
+He says:
+
+"Immediately I conferred, not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to
+Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into
+Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus."
+
+The irresistible longing to get away from the sights and sounds of the
+external world, is one of the most characteristic phases of Illumination.
+It is only in order that they may take up the work of bringing to others
+this great blessing that those who have entered into the larger
+consciousness, eventually bring themselves to enter the life of the world.
+
+Thus, we find that Paul's great desire to bring the light to others, took
+him again to Damascus; and from the records we have of his utterances and
+his mode of living, we may gather some idea of the great change which
+Illumination made in him.
+
+Certain statements, which characterize all who possess cosmic
+consciousness, in any degree of fullness, emanate from the converted Paul.
+He says:
+
+"I must needs glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions
+and revelations of the Lord--for if I should desire to glory I shall not be
+foolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should
+account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And
+by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations--wherefore that I
+should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
+a messenger of Satan to buffet me."
+
+One of the characteristics of the Illumined is a deep humility. This is
+not in any sense an abasement of the self; not in any sense a feeling that
+it is necessary to "bow down and worship;" nor yet a tinge of that nameless
+fear, which the carnal-minded self feels in the presence of exalted beings.
+
+It is a humility born of the desire to make every one know and feel a sense
+of kinship with him; he hesitates to reveal all that has been revealed to
+him, lest those who hear his words may think he is either "speaking
+foolishly," through egotism, or else that they may look upon him as a being
+superior, more exalted, than themselves. And a divine compassion and love
+for his fellow being characterizes the Illumined. Again, Paul wishes to
+make clear the fact that he is still living in the physical body; living
+the life of a body, and until liberated from the conditions that influence
+the external world, he is himself subject to the lesser consciousness, and
+he does not want them to expect more of the personal self, than that
+personal self is capable of, under the conditions in which he lives.
+
+He desires no personal exaltation, or praise, therefore he hesitates to
+speak fully of his own revelations, but prefers to teach by reference to
+the experiences of others.
+
+Nevertheless, he tries to make clear the fact that he is not merely
+preaching a "belief," which he has embraced because of doubt or fear, or
+because it is a creed. Indeed, he is free from the "law" and is, therefore,
+not merely following a system, neither the old one which he has abandoned,
+nor a new one which he has accepted. He speaks from the "Lord," which is no
+other than the highest authority that man may know--namely, the authority
+that comes from the realization of his own imperishable godhood--the effect
+of cosmic consciousness.
+
+He says:
+
+"For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel as preached by
+me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor
+was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Christ.
+
+"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. But before faith came, we
+were kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
+afterwards be revealed. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ.
+For with freedom did Christ set us free."
+
+This we take to refer to his former adherence to, and belief in, the system
+of worship taught by the Jews, as a necessary and probably the only "way of
+salvation" acceptable to God. He wishes his hearers to understand that he
+is not bound by adherence to any creed; neither the old one, nor yet the
+new one, but that what he preached came from the light of cosmic
+consciousness, in which there is no law, nor sense of law. Cosmic
+consciousness gives to the illumined one a sense of freedom (Christ means
+cosmic consciousness, and not a personality).
+
+Cosmic consciousness confers, above all else, perhaps, a sense of freedom
+from every form of bondage.
+
+The duty and the obligations that bind the average person, are impossible
+to the cosmically conscious one. Not that he displays indifference toward
+the welfare and the rights of others. Far from that, he feels an added
+sense of responsibility for the irresponsible; an overwhelming compassion
+for the unfortunate, and a relationship greater than ever to mankind.
+
+But this sense of freedom causes him to do all _in love_, which he hitherto
+did because it was so "laid down in the law."
+
+Again St. Paul makes this plain:
+
+"The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness,
+goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such as these there
+is no law--neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
+creature."
+
+When we are armored with the "fruit of the spirit," we have no need for
+rules of conduct; for methods of salvation; or for any of the bonds that
+are necessary to the merely sense-conscious man.
+
+Plainly, Paul recognized the fact that systems of religion, of philosophy,
+of rules and ethics of intercourse, are necessary only so long as man
+remains on the sense-conscious plane. When Illumination comes, there comes
+with it absolute freedom. God does not want to be worshipped on bended
+knee; by rites and ceremonies; by obedience to commandments, but the
+undisciplined soul acquires power and poise through these exercises, and in
+time grows to the full stature of god-consciousness.
+
+Nor is intellectual greatness to be confounded with the godlike character
+of the one who has attained to Illumination.
+
+Elsewhere in these pages we have made the distinction between knowledge and
+wisdom. Knowledge alone can never bring a soul into the path of
+Illumination. Wisdom will point the way, but love is the unerring guide to
+the very goal.
+
+St. Paul's expression of this fact is concise, and to the point. This
+observation alone, stamps him as one possessing a very high degree of
+realization of what cosmic consciousness is.
+
+"If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him
+become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is
+foolishness to God."
+
+The worldly wise man or woman asks "how much do I get?" The truly wise
+person cares nothing at all for possessions. He only asks "how much can I
+give?"
+
+And although we find in the marts of commercialism a contempt for the
+gullible, and the credulous; the trusting and the confiding, let it be
+known that the "smart" bargainer will indeed smart for his smartness, for
+in the light of cosmic consciousness, this alleged "wisdom" of men,
+appears as utter foolishness; wasted effort; a perversion of opportunity.
+
+Because "all these things shall pass away."
+
+Love alone is imperishable.
+
+Love alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act
+from motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.
+
+Again says St. Paul:
+
+"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am
+as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
+
+"And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all
+knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have
+not love, I am nothing.
+
+"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be
+burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
+
+"_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
+
+"But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be
+tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away.
+For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect
+is come, that which is in part shall be done away."
+
+It must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the
+prophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the
+community.
+
+The ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews.
+St. Paul's exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has
+entered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his
+open avowal that there was a far greater power--a more exalted state of
+consciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of "knowing all
+mysteries;" that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order
+that they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the
+perfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no
+one truly who became "a new creature", as he characterized this change,
+ever exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or
+"superior," or "holy," in the sense the latter word had been used.
+
+How, then, would they know when they had attained to this state of
+consciousness, of which he spoke, and which they but dimly understood?
+
+How might they know when they had found this great love that was to make
+them "a new creature"?
+
+First of all, they might know because:
+
+_LOVE NEVER FAILETH_.
+
+Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not
+itself; is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is
+not provoked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness,
+but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things;
+hopeth all things; endureth all things.
+
+In fact, _LOVE NEVER FAILETH_. Love is always a safe guide. No matter what
+may be said to the contrary; no matter how much suffering it entails; no
+matter how seemingly fruitless the sacrifice; or how ungrateful the
+results, _love_ never faileth.
+
+How can it fail when we "seek not our own," but only love for love's own
+sake, without regard to compensation or gratitude?
+
+St. Paul, with all who have expressed in any considerable degree this
+cosmic realization, seems to have expected a time, when cosmic
+consciousness should become so general, as to bring the kingdom of love
+upon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been
+prophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the "signs of the
+times" that were to usher in The Dawn.
+
+Moreover, the idea that there shall come a time when death shall be
+overcome, is a persistent part of every prophecy, and of every religious
+cult. In these days we find that science is speculating upon the
+probability of discovering a specific for senile death, as well as for the
+final elimination of death from disease and accidents.
+
+Whether or not this is to be the manner of "overcoming the last enemy," the
+fact remains that the almost universally held idea of physical immortality
+has a basis in fact, which this postulate of science symbolizes.
+
+"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortality must put
+on immortality, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
+and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the
+saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
+
+So said St. Paul, and his words show clearly that before his time there had
+been a prophecy and belief in the final triumph of love over death, not as
+an article of faith, but as a common knowledge.
+
+St. Paul speaks of the time when "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all
+be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
+
+"And then come to the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God,
+even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule, all authority, and
+all power."
+
+Unquestionably, if all men on earth in the flesh and in the astral, were to
+come into the light of the cosmic consciousness, there would be no need for
+laws, for authority or power. The kingdom, which signifies the earth as a
+planet, would indeed be delivered to God, which means Love, and "Love never
+faileth."
+
+And while we admit that these words of St. Paul may be applied to
+individual attainment of cosmic consciousness, and not refer to an era of
+earth life, in which the fruits of this larger consciousness are to be
+gathered in the physical, yet we maintain that the argument for such an
+hypothesis is strong indeed. He says:
+
+"For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the revealing of the
+sons of God."
+
+For the term "sons of God" interpret "those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness," and we may readily parallel this with the many allusions to
+the earth's redemption, with which history is strewn.
+
+To "redeem" the earth is quite comparable with the idea of redeeming any
+part of the earth's surface--either as a nation, or as a tract of
+land--which is not yielding the best that it is capable of.
+
+In the cosmogony of the heavens, the planet earth may well be likened to a
+territory that has possibilities, but which needs cultivation;
+encouragement; work; to bring out its possibilities and make it a place of
+comfort and enlightenment.
+
+So we have been informed--and an understanding of deeper occultism will
+bear out the information--that this earth is being made a "fit habitation
+for the gods" (i.e., cosmically conscious beings, to whom love is the only
+authority necessary).
+
+Paul clearly alludes to the redemption of the body, as well as the
+continuance of the life of the soul, when he says:
+
+"For the creation was subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason
+of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be
+delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of
+the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
+travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also,
+WHICH HAVE THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves, waiting for
+our adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body."
+
+St. Paul declared that even those who had glimpsed that wonderful
+Illumination (which have the first fruits of the spirit), are not free from
+the travail of the sense-conscious world, until such time as the cycle has
+been completed, and those who "are already in Christ, and then they that
+are Christ's at his coming," shall have made possible the perfected
+creation, and brought about the reign of love on earth.
+
+So that, when a sufficient number of souls shall have attained to this
+Illumination (cosmic consciousness), the "last enemy shall be overcome."
+That this present era gives promise of this hope, is evident.
+
+The attainment of cosmic consciousness brings with it immunity from
+reincarnation, as a necessity--as a law, but it does not provide against
+the coming of avatars--"sons of God," who are to "deliver Creation from the
+bondage of corruption."
+
+This also is clearly stated by Paul:
+
+"There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. For the law of the
+spirit of life in Christ made me free from the law of sin and death."
+
+There never is any doubt in the minds of those who have attained cosmic
+consciousness, that they are spiritual beings and immortal--free from the
+law of karma; neither is there any thought of evil or of condemnation.
+
+They know that men are gods in embryo and that until they have been born
+into the cosmic consciousness--the realization of their _reality as
+spirit_, they must travail; but this sense-conscious state is not to be
+condemned any more than the child is to be condemned because it has not
+yet grown to adultship.
+
+The advice of St. Paul himself was simple enough and straight-forward
+enough. It was devoid of all subtleties; free from complexity; free from
+fear, or haste, or doubt, or strife, while confidently awaiting the
+universal attainment of Illumination.
+
+To the question as to what path to follow; what should be done to gain
+this great boon, if the law of the ancient Hebrews was not to be followed
+in its literal significance, Paul said:
+
+"Whatsoever things are honest; whatsoever things are true; whatsoever
+things are just; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely;
+whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there
+be any praise, _THINK ON THESE THINGS_."
+
+Which is to say, do not seek the letter of the way of Illumination. Do not
+look for forms and ceremonies and rules and systems, but look for that
+which is clean and pure and good wherever it may be found.
+
+In St. Paul we have fulfilled all the points that characterize those who
+have been blessed with the great Illumination.
+
+His broad outlook upon humanity, which refused to see evil or to condemn
+where formerly he had been noted for his zeal in bringing to condemnation
+all whom he believed to be heretics; his conviction of immortality; his
+humility, as far as personal aggrandizement was concerned; the great light
+in which was revealed to him the truth; the annihilation of the idea of sin
+and death; the realization that systems and laws and methods of worship and
+giving of alms and all the by-paths which formerly he had deemed necessary,
+were as naught compared to the great illuminating, all-embracing power of
+Love--the Savior whose kingdom should sometime be established upon
+earth--the time being when cosmic consciousness should be general.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MOHAMMED
+
+
+Despite the fact that the followers of Mohammed, the prophet, are among the
+most fanatical and prejudiced of all religious sects, Mohammed himself was
+unquestionably among the Illumined Ones of earth, and had attained and
+retained a high degree of cosmic consciousness.
+
+The wars; the persecutions; the horrors that have been committed in the
+name of Islam, are perhaps a little more atrocious than any in history
+although the unspeakable cruelties of the Inquisition would seem to have no
+parallel.
+
+The religion of Persia, wrongly alluded to as "fire-worship," marks
+Zoroaster as among the Illuminati, but as the present volume is concerned,
+in the religious aspect of it, only with those cases of Illumination which
+we are classifying among the present great religious systems, we cite the
+case of Mohammed, the Arab, as one clearly establishing the characteristic
+points of Illumination.
+
+When Mohammed was born, in the early part of the fifth century, the
+condition of his countrymen was primitive in the extreme.
+
+The most powerful force among them was tribal or clan loyalty, and a
+corresponding hatred of, and readiness to make war with, opposing clans.
+
+Although at the time of Mohammed's birth, Christianity had made great
+headway in different parts of the old world, it had made very little
+impress upon the Arabs. They worshipped their tribal gods, and there are
+traces of a belief in a supreme God (Allah ta-ala), but they were not as a
+race inclined to a deeply religious sentiment.
+
+One and all, whether given to superstitions or denying a belief in Allah,
+they dreaded the dark after-life and although the different tribes made
+their yearly pilgrimages to Mecca, and faithfully kissed the stone that
+had fallen from heaven in the days of Adam, the inspiration of their
+ancient prophets had long since died, and a new prophet was expected and
+looked for.
+
+The yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, which was at once the center of trade and
+the goal of the religious enthusiast, was observed by all the tribes of
+Arabia, but it is a question whether the pilgrimage was not more often made
+in a holiday spirit than in that of the devotee to the _Kaabeh,_ the most
+sacred temple in all Arabia.
+
+Indeed, it is agreed by all commentators, that the ancient Arab, "In the
+Time of Ignorance," before the coming of Mohammed, knew little and cared
+less about those spiritual qualities that look beyond the physical; not
+questioning, as did Mohammed, what lies beyond this vale of strife, whose
+only exit is the dark and inscrutable face of death.
+
+Besides the tribal gods, individual households had their special Penates,
+to whom was due the first and the last salam of the returning or out-going
+host. But in spite of all this superstitious apparatus, the Arabs were
+never a religious people. In the old days, as now, they were reckless,
+skeptical, materialistic. They had their gods and their divining arrows,
+but they were ready to demolish both if the responses proved contrary to
+their wishes. A great majority believed in no future life, nor in a
+reckoning day of good and evil.
+
+Such, then, was the condition of thought among the various tribes when
+Mohammed was born.
+
+It was not, however, until he was past forty years of age, that the
+revelations came to him, and although it was some time later that these
+were set down, together with his admonitions and counsel to his followers,
+it is believed that they are for the most part well authenticated, as the
+Koran was compiled during Mohammed's lifetime, and thus, in the original,
+doubtless represents an authentic account of Mohammed's experiences.
+
+It is related that Mohammed's father died before his son's birth and his
+mother six years later. Thus Mohammed was left to the care of his
+grandfather, the virtual chief of Mecca. The venerable chief lived but two
+years and Mohammed, who was a great favorite with his grandfather, became
+the special charge of his uncle, Aboo-Talib, whose devotion never wavered,
+even during the trying later years, when Mohammed's persecutions caused the
+uncle untold hardships and trials.
+
+At an early age Mohammed took up the life of a sheep herder, caring for the
+herds of his kinsmen. This step became necessary because the once princely
+fortune of his noble ancestors had dwindled to almost the extreme of
+poverty, but although the occupation of sheep herder was despised by the
+tribes, it is said that Mohammed himself in later life often alluded to his
+early calling as the time when "God called him."
+
+At the age of twenty-five he took up the more desirable post of camel
+driver, and was taken into the employ of a wealthy kinswoman, Khadeejeh,
+whom he afterwards married, although she was fifteen years his senior--a
+disparity in age which means far more in the East, where physical charm
+and beauty are the only requisites for a wife, than it does in the West
+where men look more to the mental endowments of a wife than to the fleeting
+charm of youth.
+
+It is also to Mohammed's credit that his devotion to his first wife never
+wavered to the day of her death and, indeed, as long as he himself lived
+he spoke with reverence and deep affection of Khadeejeh.
+
+We learn that the next fifteen years were lived in the usual manner of a
+man of his station. Khadeejeh brought him wealth and this gave him the
+necessary time and ease in which to meditate, and the never-varying
+devotion and trust of his faithful wife brought him repose and the power to
+aid his impoverished uncle, and to be regarded among the tribes as a man
+of influence.
+
+His simple, unostentatious, and even ascetic life during these years was
+noted. He was known as a man of extremely refined tastes and sensitive
+though not querulous nature. A commentator says of him:
+
+"His constitution was extremely delicate. He was nervously afraid of bodily
+pain; he would sob and roar under it. Eminently unpractical in the common
+things of life, he was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation
+of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling.
+
+"He is more modest than a virgin behind her curtain," it has been said of
+him.
+
+"He was most indulgent to his inferiors and would not allow his awkward
+little page to be scolded, whatever he did. He was most affectionate toward
+his family. He was very fond of children, and would stop them in the
+streets and pat their little cheeks. He never struck anyone in his life.
+The worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was: 'What has
+come to him--may his forehead be darkened with mud.'
+
+"When asked to curse some one he replied: 'I have not been sent to curse,
+but to be a mercy to mankind.' He visited the sick, followed any bier he
+met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes,
+milked his goats and waited upon himself.
+
+"He never withdrew his hand out of another's palm, and turned not before
+the other had turned.
+
+"He was the most faithful protector of those he protected, the sweetest and
+most agreeable in conversation; those who saw him were suddenly filled with
+reverence; those who came to him, loved him. They who described him would
+say: 'I have never seen his like, either before or after.'
+
+"He was, however, very nervous and restless withal, often low-spirited,
+downcast as to heart and eyes. Yet he would at times suddenly break through
+these broodings, become gay, talkative, jocular, chiefly among his own."
+
+This picture corresponds with the temperament which is alluded to as the
+"artistic," or "psychic" temperament, and allowing that in these days there
+is much posing and pretense, we still must admit that the quality known as
+"temperament" is a psychological study suggesting a stage of development
+hitherto unclassified. It is said also, that in his youth Mohammed was
+subject to attacks of catalepsy, evidencing an organism peculiarly
+"psychic."
+
+It is evident that Mohammed regarded himself as one having a mission upon
+earth, even before he had received the revelations which announced him as a
+prophet chosen of Allah, for he long brooded over the things of the spirit,
+and although he had not, up to his fortieth year, openly protested against
+the fetish worship of the Kureysh, yet he was regarded as one who had a
+different idea of worship from that of the men with whom he came in
+contact.
+
+Gradually, he became more and more inclined to solitude, and made frequent
+excursions into the hills, and in his solitary wanderings, he suffered
+agonies of doubt and self distrust, fearing lest he be self-deceived, and
+again, lest he be indeed called to become a prophet of God and fail in his
+mission.
+
+Here in a cave, the revelation came. Mohammed had spent nights and days in
+fasting and prayer beseeching God for some sign, some word that would
+settle his doubts and agonies of distrust and longing for an answer to
+life's riddle.
+
+It is related that suddenly during the watches of the night, Mohammed awoke
+to find his solitary cave filled with a great and wondrous light out of
+which issued a voice saying: "Cry, cry aloud." "What shall I cry?" he
+answers, and the voice answered:
+
+"Cry in the name of thy Lord who hath created; He hath created man from a
+clot of blood. Cry--and thy Lord is the most bountiful, who hath taught by
+the pen; He hath taught man that which he knew not."
+
+It is reported that almost immediately, Mohammed felt his intelligence
+illuminated with the light of spiritual understanding, and all that had
+previously vexed his spirit with doubt and non-comprehension, was clear
+as crystal to his understanding. Nevertheless, this feeling of assurance
+did not remain with him at that time, definitely, for we are told that
+"Mohammed arose trembling and went to Khadeejeh and told her what he had
+seen and heard; and she did her woman's part and believed in him and
+soothed his terror and bade him hope for the future. Yet he could not
+believe in himself. Was he not perhaps, mad? or possessed by a devil?
+Were these voices of a truth from God? And so he went again on the
+solitary wanderings, hearing strange sounds, and thinking them at one
+time the testimony of heaven and at another the temptings of Satan, or
+the ravings of madness. Doubting, wondering, hoping, he had fain put an
+end to a life which had become intolerable in its changings from the
+hope of heaven to the hell of despair, when he again heard the voice:
+'Thou art the messenger of God and I am Gabriel.' Conviction at length
+seized hold upon him; he was indeed to bring a message of good tidings
+to the Arabs, the message of God through His angel Gabriel. He went back
+to his faithful wife exhausted in mind and body, but with his doubts
+laid at rest."
+
+With the history of the spread of Mohammed's message we are not concerned
+in this volume. The fact that his own nearest of kin, those of his own
+household, believed in his divine mission, and held to him with unwavering
+faith during the many years of persecution that followed, is proof that
+Mohammed was indeed a man who had attained Illumination. If the condition
+of woman did not rise to the heights which we have a right to expect of the
+cosmic conscious man of the future, we must remember that eastern
+traditions have ever given woman an inferior place, and for the matter of
+that, St. Paul himself seems to have shared the then general belief in the
+inferiority of the female.
+
+It is undeniable that Mohammed's domestic relations were of the most
+agreeable character; his kindness and consideration were without parallel;
+his harem was made up for the most part of women who were refused and
+scorned by other men; widows of his friends. And the fact that the prophet
+was a man of the most abstemious habits argues the claim that compassion
+and kindness was the motive in most instances where he took to himself
+another and yet another wife.
+
+However, the points which we are here dealing with, are those which
+directly relate to Mohammed's unquestioned illumination and the spirit of
+his utterances as contained in the Ku-ran, corroborate the experience of
+Buddha, of Jesus, and of all whose illumination has resulted in the
+establishment of a religious system.
+
+Mohammed taught, first of all, the fact of the one God. "There is no God
+but Allah," was his cry, and, following the example, or at least
+paralleling the example of Jesus, he "destroyed their idols" and
+substituted the worship of one God, in place of the tribal deities, which
+were a constant source of disputation among the clans.
+
+Compare the following, which is one of the five daily prayers of the
+faithful Muslim, with the Lord's prayer as used in Christian theology.
+
+  "In the name of God, the compassionate--the merciful.
+  Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds,
+  The compassionate, the merciful.
+  The king of the day of judgment.
+  Thee do we worship and of Thee do we beg assistance.
+  Guide us in the right way,
+  The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious,
+  Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring."
+
+Mohammed never tired of telling his disciples and followers that God was
+"The Very-Forgiving." Among the many and sometimes strangely varied
+attributes of God (The Absolute), we find this characteristic most strongly
+and persistently dwelt upon--the ever ready forgiveness and mercifulness of
+God.
+
+Every _soorah_ of the _Kur-an_ begins with the words: "In the name of God,
+the compassionate, the merciful," but, even as Jesus laid persistent
+emphasis upon the _love_ of God, and yet up to very recent times,
+Christianity taught the _fear and wrath_ of God, losing sight of the one
+great and important fact that _God is love_, and that _love is God_, so the
+Muslims overlooked the _real_ message, and the greatness and the power and
+the fearfulness of God, is the incentive of the followers of the Illumined
+Mohammed.
+
+The following extracts from the Kur-an are almost identical with many
+passages in the Holy Scriptures of the Christian, and are comparable with
+the sayings of the Lord Buddha.
+
+"God. There is no God but He, the ever-living, the ever-subsisting. Slumber
+seizeth Him not nor sleep. To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens
+and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that shall intercede with Him,
+save by His permission?"
+
+The Muslim is a fatalist, but this may be due less to the teachings of the
+prophet than to the peculiar quality of the Arab nature, which makes him
+stake everything, even his own liberty upon the cast of a die.
+
+The leading doctrine of the all-powerfulness of God seems to warrant the
+belief in fatalism--belief which offers a stumbling block to all
+theologians, all philosophers, all thinkers. If God is omnipotent,
+omnipresent, omniscient, how and where and in what manner can be explained
+the necessity of individual effort?
+
+This problem is not at all clear to the western mind, and it is equally
+obscure to that of the East.
+
+It is said of Mohammed that when asked concerning the doctrine of
+"fatalism" he would show more anger than at any other question that could
+be put to him. He found it impossible to explain that while all knowledge
+was God's, yet the individual was responsible for his own salvation, by
+virtue of his good deeds and words. Nevertheless, it is not unlikely that
+Mohammed possessed the key to this seeming riddle; but how could it be
+possible to speak in a language which was totally incomprehensible to them
+of this knowledge--the language of cosmic consciousness?
+
+Like Jesus, who said: "Many things I have to tell you, but you can not bear
+(understand) them now," so, we may well believe that Mohammed was
+hard-pressed to find language comprehensible to his followers, in which to
+explain the all-knowingness and all-powerfulness of God, and at the same
+time, not have them fall into the error of the _fatal_ doctrine of
+fatalism.
+
+But throughout all his teachings Mohammed's chief concern seemed to be to
+draw his people away from their worship of idols, and to this end he laid
+constant and repeated emphasis upon the one-ness of God; the all-ness, the
+completeness of the one God; always adding "_the Compassionate_, the
+Loving."
+
+This constant allusion to the all-ness of God is in line with
+all who have attained to cosmic consciousness. Nothing more
+impresses the illumined mind, than the fact that the universe is
+One--uni--(one)--verse--(song)--one glorious harmony when taken in its
+entirety, but when broken up and segregated, and set at variance, we
+find discord, even as the score of a grand operatic composition when
+played in unison makes perfect harmony but when incomplete, is
+nerve-racking.
+
+Like all inspired teachers, Mohammed taught the end of the world of sense,
+and the coming of the day of judgment, and the final reign of peace and
+love. This may, of course, be interpreted literally, and applied to a life
+other than that which is to be lived on this planet, but it may also with
+equal logic be assumed that Mohammed foresaw the dawn of cosmic
+consciousness as a race-endowment, belonging to the inheritors of this
+sphere called earth. In either event the ultimate is the same, whether the
+one who suffers and attains, comes into his own in some plane or place in
+the heavens, or whether he becomes at-one with God, The Absolute Love and
+Power of the spheres, and "inherits the earth," in the days of the
+on-coming higher degree of consciousness, which we are here considering.
+
+That Mohammed realized the nothingness of form and ritual, except it be
+accompanied by sincerity and understanding, is evident in the following:
+
+"Your turning your faces _in prayer_, towards the East and the West, is not
+piety; but the pious is he who believeth in God, and the last day, and in
+the angels and in the Scripture; and the prophets, and who giveth money
+notwithstanding his love of it to relations and orphans, and to the needy
+and the son of the road, and to the askers for the _freeing of slaves_; and
+who performeth prayer and giveth the alms, and those who perform their
+covenant when they covenant; and the patient in adversity and affliction
+and the time of violence. These are they who have been true; and these are
+they who fear God."
+
+Parallel with the doctrine taught by Buddha, and Jesus, is the advice to
+overcome evil with good. In our modern metaphysical language, we must
+dissolve the vibrations of hate, by the power of love, instead of opposing
+hate with hate, war with war, revenge with revenge.
+
+Mohammed expressed this doctrine of non-resistance thus:
+
+"Turn away evil by that which is better; and lo, he, between whom and
+thyself was enmity, shall become as though he were a warm friend."
+
+"But none is endowed with this, except those who have been patient and none
+is endowed with it, except he who is greatly favored."
+
+Mohammed meant by these words "he who is greatly favored," to explain that
+in order to see the wisdom and the glory of such conduct, one must have
+attained to spiritual consciousness. This was especially a new doctrine to
+the people to whom he was preaching, because it was considered cowardice to
+fail to resent a blow. Pride of family and birth was the strongest trait in
+the Arab nature.
+
+In furtherance of this doing good to others, we find these words: "If ye
+are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at
+least return it; verily. God taketh count of these things. If there be any
+under a difficulty wait until it be easy; but if ye remit it as alms, it
+will be better for you."
+
+Mohammed here referred to debtors and creditors; as he was talking to
+traders, merchants, men who were constantly buying and selling, this
+admonition was in line with his teaching, which was to "do unto others
+that which you would that they do unto you."
+
+In further compliance with his doctrine of doing good for good's sake
+Mohammed said: "If ye manifest alms, good will it be; but if ye conceal
+them and give them to the poor, it will be better for you; and it will
+expiate some of your sins."
+
+Alms-giving, as an ostentatious display among church members, was here
+given its rightful place. It is well and good to give openly to
+organizations, but it is better to give to individuals who need it,
+secretly and quietly to give, without hope, or expectation, or desire for
+thanks, or for reward, to give for the love of giving, for the sole wish to
+make others happy. This desire to bestow upon others the happiness which
+has come to them, is a characteristic of the cosmic conscious man or woman.
+
+It is comforting to know that Mohammed, like Buddha and The Man of Sorrows;
+and like Sri Ramakrishna, the saint of India, at length attained unto that
+peaceful calm that comes to one who has found the way of Illumination. It
+is doubtless impossible for the merely sense-conscious person to form any
+adequate idea of the inward urge; the agony of doubts and questionings; the
+imperative necessity such a one feels, to _KNOW_.
+
+The sense-conscious person reads of the lives of these men and wonders why
+they could not be happy with the things of the world. The temptation that
+we are told came to Jesus in the garden, is typical of the state of
+transition from sense-consciousness to cosmic consciousness. The
+sense-conscious person regards the _things of the senses_ as important. He
+is actuated by ambition or self-seeking or by love of physical comfort or
+by physical activity, to _obtain_ the possessions of sense. To such as
+these, the agonies of mind; the physical hardships; the ever-ready
+forgiveness and the desire for peace and love of the Illuminate seem almost
+weaknesses. Therefore, they can not fully comprehend the satisfaction which
+comes to the one who has come into a realization of illumination, through
+the years of mental tribulation such as that endured by Mohammed and Jesus
+and Buddha.
+
+We are told that the prophet repeatedly refuted the suggestion of his
+adoring followers that he was God himself come to earth.
+
+"It is wonderful," says one of his commentators, "with his temptations,
+how great a humility was ever is, how little he assumed of all the godlike
+attributes men forced upon him. His whole life is one long argument for his
+loyalty to truth. He had but one answer for his worshippers, 'I am no more
+than a man; I am only human.' * * * He was sublimely confident of this
+single attribute that he was the messenger of the Lord of the daybreak, and
+that the words he spake came verily from him. He was fully persuaded that
+God had sent him to do a great work among his people in Arabia. Nervous to
+the verge of madness, subject to hysteria, given to wild dreaming in
+solitary places, his was a temperament that easily lends itself to
+religious enthusiasm."
+
+While it may be argued that Mohammed did not possess cosmic consciousness
+in the degree of fullness which we find in the life of St. Paul, for
+example, we must take into consideration the temperament of the Arab, and
+the conditions under which he labored. But that he had attained a high
+degree of Illumination is beyond dispute. This fact is evidenced by the
+following salient points characteristic of cosmic consciousness: A fine
+sensitive, highly-strung organization; a deep and serious thoughtfulness,
+especially regarding the realities of life; an indifference to the call of
+personal ambition; love of solitude and the mental urge that demands to
+know the answer to life's riddle.
+
+Following the time of illumination on Mount Hara we find Mohammed
+possessing a conviction of the truth of immortality and the goodness of
+God; we find him also with a wonderful power to draw people to him in
+loving service; and the irresistible desire to bring to his people the
+message of immortal life, and the necessity to look more to spiritual
+things than to the things of the flesh. Added to this, we find Mohammed
+changed from a shrinking, sensitive youth, given to much reflection and
+silent meditation, into a man with perfect confidence in his own mission
+and in his ultimate victory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
+
+
+While the Swedenborgians, as a religious sect, are not numerically
+sufficient to be reckoned among the world's great religions, it is yet a
+fact that the followers of the great Swedish seer and scientist hold a
+prominent place among the innumerable sects which the beginning of this
+century finds flourishing.
+
+Swedenborg was born in Stockholm, in January, 1688, and lived to the
+advanced age of eighty-four years.
+
+Swedenborg was well born; he was the son of a bishop of the Swedish church,
+and during his lifetime held many positions of honor. He was a friend and
+adviser of the king, and his expert knowledge of mining engineering gave
+him a place among the scientists of his age.
+
+He was a voluminous writer, his early work being confined to the phases of
+materialistic science, notably on mines and metals, and later upon man, in
+his physiological aspect.
+
+His "De Cerebro and Psychologia Rationales," published in his fifty-seventh
+year, showed a different Swedenborg from the one to whom his colleagues
+were accustomed to refer with much respect.
+
+This book dealt with man, not as a product of brute creation, but as an
+evolutionary creature, having at least a possibility of divine origin. It
+is, however, his "Arcana Coelestia" upon which "The Church of the New
+Jerusalem" is founded; and it is this work which caused Swedenborg's
+friends and colleagues to determine that he had become insane. It is, in
+fact, only within very recent years, that the so-called scientific world
+has deigned to regard Swedenborg's revelations with any degree of serious
+and respectful attention.
+
+Swedenborg's Illumination was not, like that of so many others, who have
+founded a new religion, a sudden influx of spiritual consciousness, but
+rather a gradual leading up to the inevitable goal, by virtue of serious
+thought, deep study, and a high order of mentality.
+
+But that the Swedish seer received, in full measure, the blessing of cosmic
+consciousness, is beyond doubt.
+
+Swedenborg's extremely simple habits of life; his freedom from any desire
+for display, or for those social advantages into which he was born; his
+gentleness and unassuming manner, of which much is written by his
+followers, all point to him as one upon whom the blessing might readily
+descend. Swedenborg was a vegetarian, but this seems not to be a necessary
+characteristic of those possessing illumination, although, when cosmic
+consciousness shall have become almost general, vegetarianism must
+inevitably come with it, as animal life will disappear from the earth.
+
+Swedenborg, like many others who have perceived the cosmic light, evidently
+believed that he had been specially selected and consecrated for the work
+of the new church. That is, he took his illumination, not as an initiation
+into the higher degrees of cosmic truth, but as a special and personal
+revelation. This view characterizes those who founded a new, or a reformed
+religious system, while as a matter of truth, the light that comes is a
+part of the cosmic plan, and not, as Swedenborg and others imagine, as a
+personal revelation.
+
+However, Swedenborg considered himself a direct instrument in the hands of
+God, and God is alluded to as a personality. He believed that his great
+mission was to disclose the true nature of the Bible, and to prove that it
+was actually the inspired word of God, having an esoteric meaning, which
+has wrongly been interpreted to apply to the creation of a material world,
+and to its history and its people, but that when understood, it explains
+clearly, the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their relation to
+each other. It should be remembered that at the time Swedenborg wrote his
+theological works, the church had fallen into rank materialism and
+superstition. That Swedenborg should have received his illumination, or
+revelation, direct from the Lord, only serves to prove that the mortal
+consciousness clothes the revelation with whatever personality appeals to
+it, as having authority.
+
+Thus, the angel Gabriel was the dictator in the case of Mohammed, and the
+"Blessed Mother" of the Hindu reveals to them the vision of _mukti_.
+Swedenborg says of his vision: "God appeared to me and said, 'I am the Lord
+God, the Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold
+the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures. I will myself dictate to thee
+what thou shalt write.'"
+
+In "The True Christian Religion," published shortly before his death he
+says: "Since the Lord can not manifest Himself in person as has been shown,
+and yet He has foretold that He would come and establish a new church,
+which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that He is to do it, by means of a
+man, who is able not only to receive the doctrines of this church with his
+understanding, but also to publish them by the press. That the Lord has
+manifested Himself before me, His servant, and sent me on this office, and
+that, after this, He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus let me into
+the spiritual world, and gave me to see the heavens and the hells and also
+to speak with spirits and angels, and this now continually for many years,
+I testify in truth; and also that, from the first day of that call, I have
+not received anything that pertains to the doctrines of that church from my
+angel, but from the Lord alone, while I read the Word."
+
+It is stated with great positiveness by Swedenborg's followers, and indeed,
+apparently by the seer himself, if we may take as authoritative, the
+translations of his works, that the revelations accorded to him covered a
+period of many years, whereas, we find in most instances of cosmic
+consciousness, the illumined ones have alluded to some specific time, as
+the great event, even while claiming that the effect of this illumination
+remains indefinitely--in fact, forms a part of a wider area of
+consciousness which is ever increasing.
+
+But when we take the numerous instances of revelations, in which the devout
+ones firmly believe that they and they alone have been accorded the vision,
+we must realize that this phenomenon is impersonal, looked at as a favor to
+any one human being. By that we mean that Illumination comes to every soul
+who has earned it, just as mathematically as the sun seems to set, after
+the earth has made its hourly journey.
+
+Perhaps this comparison is not as clear as to say: when the normal child
+has grown to manhood or womanhood, his consciousness has widened, beyond
+that of the infant; not excluding that of the infant but inclusive of all
+hitherto acquired knowledge. Without in any degree lessening the
+importance and the verity of Swedenborg's visions, it may be assumed that
+his record of these visions and their meaning has partaken more or less of
+the limitations of mortal mind.
+
+Spiritual consciousness can not be set down in terms of sense. The external
+world symbolizes spiritual truths; each interpreter must of necessity weave
+into his interpretation and attempt at finite expression of these truths,
+something of his own mortal consciousness; and this "mortal mind"
+consciousness is bound to partake of the time and age, and conditions of
+environment of the person who has experienced the revelation.
+
+Making due allowance, therefore, for the impossibility of exact expression
+of any spiritual illumination, we find in the revelation of Swedenborg
+exactly what we find in all who have attained to cosmic consciousness,
+namely, the absolute, confidential assurance of immortal life: the
+conviction that creation is under divine love and wisdom, administered by
+Cosmic Law and order, or Justice, and the final "redemption" (i.e.,
+evolution), of all men. In his "Conjugal Love," Swedenborg touches upon the
+premise which we declare, as the foundation of all cosmic consciousness,
+namely the attainment of spiritual union with the "mate" which we believe
+to be inseparable from all creation; the reunited principle which we see
+expressed in the male and female, whether in plant, bird, animal, man, or
+angel; the "twain made one" which Jesus declared would be the sign manual
+of the coming of his kingdom; that is, the coming of cosmic
+consciousness--the kingdom of pure and perfect love upon earth as it is in
+the heavens.
+
+In Corinthians (11: 12) we read:
+
+"For as the woman is of the man so is the man also of the woman; for the
+woman is not without the man, nor the man without the woman _in the Lord_."
+
+Which is to say, that in the attainment of cosmic consciousness (_in the
+Lord_), the "twain are made one," and immortality (i.e., immunity from
+reincarnation) is gained, because of this union. God is a bi-sexual Being.
+This fact is evidenced throughout all creation. To attain to immortality
+is to become as God. In this day and age of the world we have come into a
+realization of the Father-Mother idea of godhood, clearly and literally
+signifying the coming consciousness which is bi-sexual; male and female;
+perfect counterparts, or complements and through which alone, this earth
+can be made a "fit dwelling place for gods." This, too, is the message of
+the great seer Swedenborg, as it relates to love, as it is, when rightly
+understood and interpreted, of all who have felt the blessing of
+perfection, as exemplified in Illumination.
+
+The fundamental points of Swedenborg's doctrine agree with those of all
+other Illumined ones, who have founded a system of worship; a "Way of
+Illumination" it may be called; or in whose name such systems have been
+formed. That is, he testified to:
+
+A conviction of immortality;
+
+A realization of absolute justice, whereby all souls shall finally come
+into cosmic consciousness.
+
+An actual time when Christ (the cosmic illumination) shall come to earth.
+
+A great and abiding love for and patience with the frailties of his
+sense-conscious fellow-beings;
+
+A transcendent desire to bestow upon all men, the blessing of cosmic
+consciousness.
+
+Few if any, have ever attained a full and complete realization of cosmic
+consciousness and remained in the physical body.
+
+Those who have attained and retained the highest degree of this glimpse of
+the Paradise of the gods, find it practically impossible to describe or
+explain the sensations experienced, even though they are more convinced of
+the truth and the reality of this realm than of anything in the merely
+sense-conscious life.
+
+Lastly, let us not lose sight of the all-important fact that no one system,
+creed, philosophy, or way of Illumination will answer for all types and
+degrees of men. "All things work together for good" to those who have the
+keenness of vision which precedes the full attainment of cosmic
+consciousness, as well as to those who have grasped its full significance.
+
+The characteristic evidence of the potentiality of the present era of the
+world, is preeminently that of a desire for unity.
+
+This desire is expressed in all the avenues of external life; its inner
+meaning is obscured by commercialism and self-interest, as in trusts and
+labor unions, but it is there nevertheless--the symbol of the inner urge
+toward unity in consciousness.
+
+It is found in efforts at Communism, and in allied reform movements. It is
+particularly evident in the breaking down of church prejudices. In these
+days a Catholic priest and a Jewish rabbi find it not only expedient but
+mutually helpful, to unite in the work of municipal reform; in the
+abolition of child labor; in all things that will bring a better state of
+existence into daily human life.
+
+The business man uses the phrase "let us get together on this" without
+knowing that he is expressing in terms of sense-consciousness, the urge of
+his own and his fellow beings' inner mind, which senses the fact of our
+unescapable Brotherhood.
+
+All religious systems then, are good, as are all systems of philosophy.
+They are good because they are an attempt at bringing into the perspective
+of the mortal mind the reality of the soul and the soul life; the rule of
+the spiritually conscious ego over the physical body in order that we may
+now, in our present incarnation, claim immortality.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MODERN EXAMPLES OF INTELLECTUAL COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS: EMERSON; TOLSTOI;
+BALZAC
+
+
+Passing over the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, Albertus Magnus,
+Plotinus, Marcus Aurelius, Pascal, Socrates, Plato, Aspasia, and others,
+all of whom had glimpsed, if not fully attained, cosmic consciousness, we
+come to a consideration of those cases in our own day and age, in which
+this superior consciousness has found expression through intellectual
+rather than through religious channels.
+
+Of these latter, no more illustrious example can be cited than that of
+Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord.
+
+Emerson's nature was essentially religious, but his religion was not of the
+emotional quality so often found among enthusiasts, and which is almost
+always openly expressed when this religious enthusiasm is not balanced by
+intellectuality.
+
+Analysis is frequently a foe to inspiration, but there are fare instances
+where the intellect is of such a penetrating and extraordinary quality that
+it carries the power of analysis into the unseen; in fact what we
+habitually term the unseen is a part of the visible to this type of mind.
+True intellect is a natural inheritance, a karmic attribute. The spurious
+kind is the result of education, and it invariably has its limitations. It
+stops short of the finer vibrations of consciousness and denies the reality
+of the inner life of man--which inner life constitutes the _real_ to the
+character of intellect that penetrates beyond _maya_.
+
+Of such a quality of intellect is that exemplified in Emerson. No mere
+tabulator of facts was he, but a dissector of the causes back of all the
+manifestation which he observed and studied and classified with the mental
+power of a god.
+
+Nor is there lacking ample proof that Emerson experienced the phenomenon of
+the suddenness of cosmic consciousness--a degree of which he seems to have
+possessed from earliest youth.
+
+In his essay on Nature, we find these words:
+
+"Crossing a bare common in snow puddles at twilight, under a clouded sky,
+without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I
+have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear."
+
+Emerson here alluded to a feeling of fear, which seems to have been
+experienced during a certain stage by many of those who have entered into
+cosmic consciousness. This fear is doubtless due to the presence in the
+human organism of what we may term the "animal instinct," which is an
+inheritance of the physical body. This same peculiar phenomenon oppresses
+almost everyone when coming into contact with a new and hitherto untried
+force.
+
+A certain lady, who relates her experience in entering into the cosmic
+conscious state, says: "A certain part of me was unafraid, certain, secure
+and content, at the same time my mortal consciousness felt an almost
+overwhelming sense of fear."
+
+Continuing, Emerson says:
+
+"All mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I
+see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am
+part or particle of God."
+
+Emerson's powerful intellect would naturally describe such an experience
+in intellectual terms rather than, as in the instances heretofore recorded,
+in religious phraseology, but it must not be inferred that Emerson was less
+religious, in the true sense, than was Mohammed or St. Paul.
+
+Emerson lived in an age when orthodoxy flourished, and he and his
+associates of the Transcendentalist cult, were regarded as non-religious,
+if not actually heretical. Therefore, it is that Emerson's keen intellect
+was brought to bear upon everything he encountered, not only in his own
+intimate experience but also in all that he read and heard, lest he be
+trapped into committing the error which he saw all about him, namely, of
+mistaking an accepted viewpoint as an article of actual faith. His way to
+the Great Light lay through the jungle of the mind, but he found the path
+clear and plain and he left a torchlight along the way.
+
+Emerson fully recognized the illusory character of external life, and the
+eternal verity of the soul, as witness:
+
+  "If the red slayer thinks he slays,
+    Or if the slain thinks he is slain,
+  They know not well, the subtle ways,
+    I keep and pass and turn again."
+
+Horrible as is war, because of the spirit of hate and destruction it
+embodies and keeps alive, yet the fact remains that man in his soul knows
+that he can neither slay nor be slain by the mere act of destroying the
+physical shell called the body. It is inconceivable that human beings would
+lend themselves to warfare, if they did not know, as a part of that area of
+supra-consciousness, that there is a _something_ over which bullets have no
+power.
+
+This fact, regarded as a more or less vague _belief_ to the majority,
+becomes incontrovertible fact to the person who has entered cosmic
+consciousness. His view is reversed, and where he formerly looked from the
+sense-conscious plane forward into a _possible_ spiritual plane, he now
+gazes back over the path from the spiritual heights and sees the winding
+road that led upward to the elevation, much as a traveller on the mountain
+top looks back and for the first time sees all of the devious trail over
+which he has, climbed to his present vantage point. During the journey
+there had been many times when he could only see the next step ahead, and
+nothing but his faith in the assurance of his fellow men who had attained
+the summit of that mountain, could ever have sustained him through the
+perils of the climb, but once on the heights, his backward view takes in
+the details of the journey and sees not "through a glass darkly," but in
+the clear light of achievement.
+
+Such is the effect of cosmic consciousness to the one who has seen the
+light.
+
+"One of the benefits of a college education," says Emerson, "is to show the
+boy its little avail."
+
+Does this imply that an unlettered mind is desirable? Not necessarily, but
+there is a phase of intellectual culture that is detrimental while it
+lasts.
+
+It is as though one were to choke up a perfectly flowing stream which
+yielded the moisture to fertile lands, by filling the bed of the stream
+with rocks and sticks.
+
+The flow of the spiritual currents becomes clogged by the activities of the
+mind in its acquisition of mere knowledge, and before that knowledge has
+been turned into wisdom. The same truth is expressed in the aphorism "a
+little knowledge is a dangerous thing." It is dangerous because it chains
+the mind to the external things of life, whereas the totally unlettered (we
+do not use the term ignorant here) person will, if he have his heart filled
+with love, perceive the reality of spiritual things that transcend mere
+knowledge of the physical universe.
+
+Beyond this plane of mortal mind-consciousness, which is fitly described as
+"dangerous," there is the wide open area of cosmic _perception_, which may
+lead ultimately to the limitless areas of cosmic consciousness. If,
+therefore, an education, whether acquired in or out of college, so whets
+the grain of the mind that it becomes keen and fine enough to realize that
+knowledge is valuable _ONLY_ as it leads to real wisdom, then indeed it is
+a benefit; unless it does this, it is temporarily an obstruction.
+
+Out of the lower into the higher vibration; out of sense-consciousness into
+cosmic consciousness; out of organization and limitations into freedom--the
+freedom of perfection, is the law and the purpose. This Emerson with his
+clearness of spiritual vision, saw, and this premise he subjected to the
+microscopic lens of his penetrating intellect. In his essay on Fate he
+says:
+
+"Fate involves amelioration. No statement of the Universe can have any
+soundness which does not admit its ascending effort. The direction of the
+whole and of the parts is toward benefit. Behind every individual closes
+organization; before him opens liberty. * * * The Better; the Best. The
+first and worse races are dead. The second and imperfect races are dying
+out, or remain for the maturing of higher. In the latest race, in man,
+every generosity, every new perception, the love and praise he extorts from
+his fellows, are certificates of advance _out of fate into freedom_."
+
+This phrase, "out of fate into freedom," may be read to mean, literally,
+out of the bondage of the sense-conscious life which entails rebirth and
+continued experience, into the light of Illumination which makes us free.
+
+Further commenting, Emerson says:
+
+"Liberation of the will from the sheaths and clogs of organization which he
+has outgrown _is the end and aim of the world_ * * * The whole circle of
+animal life--tooth against tooth, devouring war, war for food, a yelp of
+pain and a grunt of triumph, until at last the whole menagerie, the whole
+chemical mass, is mellowed and refined _for higher use_ * * *"
+
+The sense of unity which is so inseparable from the cosmic conscious
+state, was always uppermost in Emerson's mind. Neither did he ever
+present as unity that state of consciousness that may be termed
+organization-consciousness--group-consciousness it is often called. He
+realized that the person who stands for Individualism is much more than
+apt to recognize his indissoluble relationship with the Cosmos. A
+perception of unity is a complement of Individualism.
+
+That which, in modern metaphysical phraseology, is best termed "The
+Absolute," was expressed by Emerson as the Over-Soul, and this term meant
+something much greater, more unescapable than the anthropomorphic God of
+the church-goers. His assurance of unity with this Divine Spiritual Essence
+was perfect. It savors more of what is termed the religious view of life
+than of the philosophic, but we contend that in the coming era of the
+cosmic conscious man, all life will be religious, in the true sense, and
+that there will be no dividing line between philosophy and worship, because
+worship will consist of living the life of the spiritual man, and not in
+any set forms or rites. Bearing upon this we find Emerson saying:
+
+"Not thanks, not prayer, seem quite the highest or truest name for our
+communion with the infinite--but glad and conspiring reception--reception
+that becomes giving in its turn as the receiver is only the All-Giver in
+part and in infancy. I cannot--nor can any man--speak precisely of things
+so sublime, but it seems to me the wit of man, his strength, his grace, and
+his tendency, his art, is the grace and the presence of God. It is beyond
+explanation. When all is said and done, _the rapt saint is found the only
+logician._ Not exhortation nor argument becomes our lips, but paeans of joy
+and praise. But not of adulation; we are too nearly related in the deep of
+the mind to that we honor. It is God in us that checks the language of
+petition by a grander thought. In the bottom of the heart it is said, 'I am
+and by me, O child, this fair body and world of thine stands and grows; I
+am, all things are mine; and all mine are thine.'"
+
+We could quote passages from the essays ad infinitum, showing conclusively
+that the cosmic conscious plane had been attained and retained by this
+great philosopher--one of the first of the early part of the century, which
+has been prophesied as the beginning of the first faint lights of the Dawn,
+but enough has been offered for our present purpose, that of establishing
+the salient points of the cosmic conscious man or woman, which points are
+the complete assurance of the eternal verity and indestructibility of the
+soul; of its ultimate and inevitable victory over _maya_ or the "wheel of
+causation"; and the joyousness and the sense of at-one-ness with the
+universe, which comes to the illumined one, bespeaking an unquenchable
+optimism and an utter destruction of the sense of sin--points which
+characterize all who have attained to this supra-conscious state of
+Being.
+
+These points are all expressed repeatedly in all Emerson's utterances and
+mark him as one of the most illumined philosophers, as he was one of the
+greatest intellects of the last century, or of any other century.
+
+
+LEO TOLSTOI: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHER
+
+A strange, lonely and wonderful figure was Tolstoi, novelist, philosopher,
+socialist, artist and reformer.
+
+Great souls are always lonely souls, estimated by sense-conscious humans.
+In the midst of the so-called pleasures and luxuries of the senses, a wise
+soul appears as barren of comfort as is a desert of foliage.
+
+Without the divine optimism that comes from soul-consciousness, such a one
+could not endure the life of the body: without the absolute assurance that
+comes with cosmic consciousness, men like the late Count Tolstoi must needs
+die of soul-loneliness.
+
+From early childhood up to the time of his Illumination Tolstoi indulged in
+seriousness of thought. Like Mohammed, great and overpowering desire to
+fathom the mystery of death took possession of him. He was ever haunted by
+an excessive dread of the "darkness of the grave," and in his essay,
+"Childhood," he describes with that wonderful realism, which characterizes
+all his works, the effect on a child's mind of seeing the face of his dead
+mother. This may be taken in a sense as biographical, although it is not
+probable that Tolstoi here alludes to the death of his own mother as she
+died when he was too young to have remembered. He describes the scene in
+the words of Irteniev:
+
+"I could not believe that this was her face. I began to look at it more
+closely, and gradually discovered in it the familiar and beloved features.
+I shuddered with fear when I became sure that it was indeed she, but why
+were the closed eyes so fallen in? Why was she so terribly pale, and why
+was there a blackish mark under the clear skin on one cheek?"
+
+A terror of death, and yet a haunting urge that compelled him to be forever
+thinking upon the mystery of it, is the dominant note in every line of
+Tolstoi's writings up to the time which he describes as "a change" that
+came over him.
+
+For example, when Count Leo was in his 33d year, his brother Nicolai died.
+Leo was present at the bedside and described the scene with the utmost
+frankness regarding its effect upon his mind; and again we note that awful
+fear and hopeless questioning which characterizes the sense-conscious man
+whose intellect has been cultivated to the very edge of the line which
+separates the self-conscious life from the cosmic conscious.
+
+This questioning, with the fear and dread and terror of death and of the
+"ceaseless round of births" and the cares and sorrows of existence was
+what drove Prince Siddhartha from his father's court and Mohammed into the
+mountains to meditate and pray until the answer came in the light of
+illumination.
+
+It came to Tolstoi through the very intensity of his powers of reason and
+analysis; through the sword-like quality of mental urge--a much more
+sorrowful path than the one through the simple way of love and service and
+prayer.
+
+His comments upon the death of his brother give us a vivid idea of the
+state of mind of the Tolstoi of that age:
+
+"Never in my life has anything had such an effect upon me. He was right
+(referring to his brother's words) when he said to me there is nothing
+worse than death, and if you remember that death is the inevitable goal of
+all that lives, then it must be confessed that there is nothing poorer than
+life. Why should we be so careful when at the end of all things nothing
+remains of what was once Nicolai Tolstoi? Suddenly he started up and
+murmured in alarm: 'What is this?' He saw that he was passing into
+nothingness."
+
+From the above it will be seen that the Tolstoi of those days was a
+materialist pure and simple. "He saw that he was passing into nothingness,"
+he said of his brother, as though there could be no question as to the
+nothingness of the individual consciousness that he had known as Nicolai,
+his brother.
+
+This soul-harrowing materialism haunted Tolstoi during all the years of his
+youth and early manhood, and threw him constantly into fits of melancholy
+and inner brooding. He could neither dismiss the subject from his mind, nor
+could he bring into the area of his mortal consciousness that serene
+contemplation and optimistic line of reasoning which marks all that Emerson
+wrote.
+
+Tolstoi's morbid horror of decay and death was not in any sense due to a
+lack of physical courage. It was the inevitable repulsion of a strong and
+robust animalism of the body, coupled with a powerful mentality--both of
+which are barriers to the "still small voice" of the soul, through which
+alone comes the conviction of the nothingness of death.
+
+A biographer says of Tolstoi:
+
+"The fit of the fear of death which at the end of the seventies brought him
+to the verge of suicide, was not the first and apparently not the last and
+at any rate not the only one. He felt something like it fifteen years
+before when his brother Nicolai died. Then he fell ill and conjectured the
+presence of the complaint that killed his brother--consumption. He had
+constant pain in his chest and side. He had to go and try to cure himself
+in the Steppe by a course of koumiss, and did actually cure himself.
+Formerly these recurrent attacks of spiritual or physical weakness were
+cured in him, not by any mental or moral upheavals, but simply by his
+vitality, its exuberance and intoxication."
+
+The birth of the new consciousness which came to Tolstoi a few years later,
+was born into existence through these terrible struggles and mental
+agonies, inevitable because of the very nature of his heredity and
+education and environment. Although as we know, he came of gentle-folk,
+there was much of the Russian peasant in Tolstoi's makeup. His organism,
+both as to physical and mental elements, was like a piece of solid iron,
+untempered by the refining processes of an inherent spirituality. His
+never-ceasing struggle for attainment of the degree of cosmic consciousness
+which he finally reached was wholly an intellectual struggle. He possessed
+such a power of analysis, such a depth of intellectual perception, that he
+must needs go on or go mad with the strain of the question unanswered.
+
+To such a mind, the admonition to "never mind about those questions; don't
+think about them," fell upon dull ears. He could no more cease thinking
+upon the mysteries of life and death than he could cease respiration. Nor
+could he blindly trust. He must _know_. Nothing is more unescapable than
+the soul's urge toward freedom--and freedom can be won only by liberation
+from the bondage of illusion.
+
+Tolstoi's friends and biographers agree that along about his forty-fifth
+year, a great moral and religious change took place. The whole trend of his
+thoughts turned from the mortal consciousness to that inner self whence
+issues the higher qualities of mankind.
+
+From a man who, although he was a great writer and a Russian nobleman, was
+yet a man like others of his kind, influenced by traditionary ideas of
+class and outward appearance; a man of conventional habits and ideas;
+Tolstoi emerged a free soul. He shook off the illusion of historical life
+and culture, and stood upon free, moral ground, estimating himself and his
+fellows by means of an insight which ignores the world's conventions and
+despises the world's standards of success. In short, Tolstoi had received
+Illumination and henceforth should he reckoned among those of the new
+birth.
+
+In his own words, written in 1879, this change is described:
+
+"Five years ago a change took place in me. I began to experience at first
+times of mental vacuity, of cessation of life, as if I did not know why I
+was to live or what I was to do. These suspensions of life always found
+expression in the same problem, 'Why am I here?' and then 'What next?' I
+had lived and lived and gone on and on till I had drawn near a precipice; I
+saw clearly that before me there lay nothing but destruction. With all my
+might I endeavored to escape from this life. And suddenly I, a happy man,
+began to hide my bootlaces that I might not hang myself between the
+wardrobes in my room when undressing at night; and ceased to take a gun
+with me out shooting, so as to avoid temptation by these two means of
+freeing myself from this life. * * *
+
+"I lived in this way (that is to say, in communion with the people) for two
+years; and a change took place in me. What befell me was that the life of
+our class--the wealthy and cultured--not only became repulsive to me, but
+lost all significance. All our actions, our judgments, science, and art
+itself, appeared to me in a new light. I realized that it was all
+self-indulgence, and that it was useless to look for any meaning in it. I
+hated myself and acknowledged the truth. Now it had all become clear to
+me."
+
+From this time on, Tolstoi's life was that of one who had entered into
+cosmic consciousness, as we note the effects in others. Desire for solitude
+a taste for the simple, natural things of life, possessed him. The
+primitive peasants and their coarse but wholesome food appealed to him. It
+was not a penance that Tolstoi imposed upon himself, that caused him to
+abandon the life of a country gentleman for that of a hut in the woods.
+The penance would come to such a one from enforced living in the glare of
+the world's artificialities. Cosmic consciousness bestows above all things
+a taste for simplicity; it restores the normal condition of mankind, the
+intimacy with nature and the feeling of kinship with nature-children.
+
+It is not our purpose here to enter into any detailed biography of these
+instances of cosmic consciousness. The point we wish to make is the fact
+that the birth of this new consciousness frequently comes through much
+mental travail and agonies of doubt, speculation and questioning; but that
+it is worth the price paid, however seemingly great, there can be no
+possible distrust.
+
+
+HONORE DE BALZAC
+
+Balzac should head this chapter, if we were considering these philosophers
+in chronological order, as Balzac was born in 1799, preceding Emerson by a
+matter of four years. But Balzac's peculiar temperament, might almost be
+classed as a religious rather than strictly intellectual example of cosmic
+consciousness. Of the latter phase or expression of this "new" sense, as
+present-day writers frequently call it, Emerson is the most perfect
+example, because he was the most balanced; the most literary, in the
+strict interpretation of the word.
+
+Balzac's place in literature is due far more to his wonderful spiritual
+insight, and his powerful imagination, than to his intellectuality, or to
+literary style. But that he was an almost complete case of cosmic
+consciousness is evident in all he wrote and in all he did. His life was
+absolutely consistent with the cosmic conscious man, living in a world
+where the race consciousness has not yet risen to the heights of the
+spiritually conscious life.
+
+Bucke comments upon his decision against the state of matrimony, because,
+as Balzac himself declared, it would be an obstacle to the perfectibility
+of his interior senses, and to his flight through the spiritual worlds, and
+says: "When we consider the antagonistic attitude of so many of the great
+cases toward this relation (Gautama, Jesus, Paul, Whitman, etc.), there
+seems little doubt that anything like general possession of cosmic
+consciousness must abolish marriage as we know it to-day."
+
+Balzac explains this seeming aversion to the marriage state _as we know it
+to-day_, in his two books, written during his early thirties, namely, Louis
+Lambert and Seraphita. "Louis Lambert" is regarded as in the nature of an
+autobiography, since Balzac, like his mouthpiece, Louis, viewed everything
+from an inner sense--from intuition, or the soul faculties, rather than
+from the standard of mere intellectual observation, analysis and synthesis.
+This inner sense, so real and so thoroughly understandable to those
+possessing it, is almost, if not quite, impossible of description to the
+complete comprehension of those who have no intimate relationship with this
+inner vision. To the person who views life from the inner sense, the soul
+sense (which is the approach to, and is included in, cosmic consciousness),
+the external or physical life is like a mirror reflecting, more or less
+inaccurately, the reality--the soul is the gazer, and the visible life is
+what he sees.
+
+Balzac expresses this view in all he says and does. "All we are is in the
+soul," he says, and the perfection or the imperfection of what we
+externalize, depends upon the development of the soul.
+
+It is this marvelously developed inner vision that makes marriage, on the
+sense-conscious plane, which is the plane upon which we know marriage as it
+is to-day, objectionable to Balzac.
+
+His spirit had already united with its spiritual counterpart, and his soul
+sought the embodiment of that union in the flesh. This he did not find in
+the perfection and completeness which from his inner view he knew to exist.
+
+Barriers of caste, or class; of time and space; of age; of race and color;
+of condition; may intervene between counterparts on the physical plane;
+nay, one may be manifesting in the physical body and the other have
+abandoned the body, but as there is neither time nor space nor condition to
+the spirit, this union may have been sought and found, and _reflected to_
+the mortal consciousness, in which case marriage with anything less than
+the _one_ true counterpart would be unsatisfactory, if not altogether
+objectionable.
+
+With this view in mind, Seraphita becomes as lucid a bit of reading as
+anything to be found in literature.
+
+Seraphita is the perfected being--the god into which man is developing, or
+more properly speaking, _unfolding_, since man must unfold into that from
+which he started, but with consciousness added.
+
+Everywhere, in ancient and modern mysticism, we find the assumption that
+God is dual--male and female. The old Hebrew word for God is
+plural--Elohim.
+
+Humankind invariably and persistently, even though half-mockingly, alludes
+to man and wife as "one"; and men and women speak of each other, when
+married, as "my other half."
+
+That which persists has a basis in fact, and symbolizes the perfect type.
+What we know of marriage as it is to-day, proves to us beyond the shadow of
+a doubt, that the man-made institution of marriage does not make man and
+woman one, nor insure that two halves of the same whole are united. The
+highest type of men and women to-day are at best but half-gods, but these
+are prophecies of the future race, "the man-god whom we await" as Emerson
+puts it. But that which we await is the man-woman-god, the Perfected Being,
+of whom Balzac writes in Seraphita.
+
+It has been said that Madame Hanska, whom the author finally married only
+six months previous to his death, was the original of Seraphita, but it
+would seem that this great affection, tender and enduring as it was,
+partook far more of a beautiful friendship between two souls who knew and
+understood each other's needs, than it did of that blissful and ecstatic
+union of counterparts, which everywhere is described by those who have
+experienced it, as a sensation of _melting or merging into_ the other's
+being.
+
+Seraphita is the embodiment, in human form, of the _idea_ expressed in the
+world-old belief in a perfected being; whose perfection was complete when
+the two halves of the _one_ should have found each other.
+
+The inference is very generally made that Balzac believed in and sought to
+express the idea of a bi-sexual individual--a _personality_ who is complete
+in himself or herself _as a person_; one in which the intuitive, feminine
+principle and the reasoning, masculine principle had become perfectly
+balanced--in short, an androgynous human.
+
+This idea is apparently further substantiated by the fact that Seraphita
+was loved by Minna, a beautiful young girl to whom Seraphita was always
+Seraphitus, an ideal lover; and by Wilfrid, to whom Seraphita represented
+his ideal of feminine loveliness, both in mind and body; a young girl
+possessing marvelous, almost miraculous, wisdom, but yet a woman with
+human passions and human virtues--his ideal of wifehood and motherhood.
+
+But whatever the idea that Balzac intended to convey, whether, as is
+generally believed, Seraphita was an androgynous being, or whether she
+symbolized the perfection of soul-union, our contention is that this union
+is not a creation of the imagination, but the accomplishment of the plan of
+creation--the final goal of earthly pilgrimage; the raison d'etre of love
+itself.
+
+One argument against the idea that Seraphita was intended to illustrate an
+androgynous being, rather than a perfected human, who had her spiritual
+mate, is found in the words in which she refused to marry Wilfrid, although
+Balzac makes it plainly evident that she was attracted to Wilfrid with a
+degree of sense-attraction, due to the fact that she was still living
+within the environment of the physical, and therefore subject to the
+illusions of the mortal, even while her spiritual consciousness was so
+fully developed as to enable her to perceive and realize the difference
+between an attraction that was based largely upon sense, and that which was
+of the soul.
+
+Wilfrid says to her:
+
+"Have you no soul that you are not seduced by the prospect of consoling a
+great man, who will sacrifice all to live with you in a little house by the
+border of a lake?"
+
+"But," answers Seraphita, "I am loved with a love without bounds."
+
+And when Wilfrid with insane anger and jealousy asked who it was whom
+Seraphita loved and who loved her, she answered "God."
+
+At another time, when Minna, to whom she had often spoken in veiled terms
+of a mysterious being who loved her and whom she loved, asked her who this
+person was, she answered:
+
+"I can love nothing here on earth."
+
+"What dost thou love then?" asked Minna.
+
+"Heaven" was the reply.
+
+This obscurity and uncertainty as to what manner of love it was that
+absorbed Seraphita, and who was the object of it, could not have been
+possible had it been the usual devotion of the _religeuse_.
+
+Seraphita, whose consciousness extended far beyond that of the people about
+her, could not have explained to her friends that the invisible realms were
+as real to her as the visible universe was to those with only
+sense-consciousness. It was impossible to explain to them that she had
+found and knew her mate, even though she had not met him in the physical
+body.
+
+To Wilfrid she said she loved "God." To Minna she used the term "Heaven,"
+and when Minna questioned: "But art thou worthy of heaven when thou
+despisest the creatures of God?" Seraphita answered:
+
+"Couldst thou love two beings at once? Would a lover be a lover if he did
+not fill the heart? Should he not be the first, the last, the only one? She
+who loves will she not quit the world for her lover? Her entire family
+becomes a memory; she has no longer a relative. The lover! she has given
+him her whole soul. If she has kept a fraction of it, she does not love. To
+love feebly, is that to love? The word of the lover makes all her joy, and
+quivers in her veins like a purple deeper than blood; his glance is a light
+which penetrates her; she dissolves in him; there, where he is, all is
+beautiful; he is warmth to the soul: he irradiates everything; near him
+could one know cold or night? He is never absent; he is ever within us; we
+think in him, to him, for him. Minna, that is the-way I love."
+
+And when Minna, like Wilfrid, "seized by a devouring jealousy," demanded to
+know "whom?" Seraphita answered, "God." This she did because the one whom
+she loved became her God. We are told that "love makes gods of men."
+Perfect love, the love of those who are spiritual-mates--soul-mates--the
+"man-woman-god whom we await," becomes an immortal: and immortals are gods.
+
+Moreover if Seraphita had intended to teach the love of the religious
+devotee to The Absolute instead of a perfected sex-love, she would not have
+pointed out to both Wilfrid and Minna that which she, in her superior
+vision, her supra-consciousness, perceived, namely, that Wilfrid and Minna
+were really intended for spiritual mates, and that what they each saw in
+her was really a prophecy of their own perfected and spiritualized love.
+
+The subject is one that is positively incomprehensible and unexplainable to
+the average mind. All mystic literature, when read with the eyes of
+understanding, exalts and spiritualizes sex. The latter day degeneration of
+sex is the "trail of the serpent," which Woman is to crush with her heel.
+And Woman is crushing it to-day, although to the superficial observer, who
+sees only surface conditions, it would appear as though Woman had fallen
+from her high estate, to take her place on a footing with man. This view is
+the exoteric, and not the esoteric, one.
+
+They who have ears hear the inner voice, and they who have eyes see with
+the inner sight. The mystery of sex is the eternal mystery which each must
+solve for himself before he can comprehend it, and when solved eliminates
+all sense of sin and shame; brings Illumination in which everything is made
+clear and makes man-woman immortal--_a_ god.
+
+Swedenborg's theory of Heaven as a never-ending honeymoon in which
+spiritually-mated humans dwell, has been denounced by many as "shocking" to
+a refined and sensitive mind. But this idea is shocking only because even
+the most advanced minds are seldom Illumined, their advancement being along
+the lines of intellectual research and _acquired knowledge_, which, as we
+have previously explained, is not synonymous with _interior wisdom_.
+
+The illumined mind is bound to find in the eternal and ever-present fact of
+sex, the key to the mysteries--the password to immortal godhood.
+
+The subject is one that cannot be set forth in printed words; this fact is,
+indeed, the very Plan of Illumination. It cannot be _taught_. It must be
+_found_. Only those who have glimpsed its truth can even imperfectly point
+the way in which it _may_ be discovered. No teacher can guarantee it. It is
+the most evanescent, the most delicate, the most indescribable thing in the
+Cosmos. It is therefore the most readily misinterpreted and misunderstood.
+
+Balzac doubtless understood, not as a matter of perception of a truth but
+as an experience, and this fact, if no other, marks him as one having a
+very high degree of cosmic consciousness.
+
+Seraphita called herself a "Specialist." When Minna inquired how it was
+that Seraphitus could read the souls of men, the answer was:
+
+"I have the gift of Specialism. Specialism is an inward sight that can
+penetrate all things; you will understand its full meaning only through
+comparison. In the great cities of Europe works are produced by which the
+human hand seeks to represent the effects of the moral nature as well as
+those of the physical nature, as well as those of the ideas in marble. The
+sculptor acts on the stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into
+it. There are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of
+representing the whole noble side of humanity, or the evil side of it; most
+men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few older men, a
+little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the thoughts
+expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of art are of the
+same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work the whole universe of
+thought. Such persons are in themselves the principles of art; they bear
+within them a mirror which reflects nature in her slightest manifestations.
+Well, so it is with me; I have within me a mirror before which the moral
+nature, with its causes and its effects, appears and is reflected. Entering
+thus into the consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future
+and the past * * * though what I have said does not define the gift of
+Specialism, for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it."
+
+This describes in terms similar to those employed by others who possess
+cosmic consciousness, the results of this inner light, which Seraphita
+calls a "mirror."
+
+And yet, with this seemingly exhaustive and lucid exposition of the effects
+of Illumination, Seraphita declares that "to conceive the nature of this
+gift we must possess it."
+
+Balzac further comments upon what he terms this gift of Specialism, which
+is cosmic consciousness or illumination, thus:
+
+"The specialist is necessarily the loftiest expression of man--the link
+which connects the visible to the superior worlds. He acts, he sees, he
+feels through his _inner being_. The abstractive _thinks_. The instinctive
+simply _acts_. Hence three degrees for man. As an instinctive he is below
+the level; as an abstractive he attains it; as a specialist he rises above
+it. Specialism opens to man his true career; the Infinite dawns upon
+him--he catches a glimpse of his destiny."
+
+The merely sense-conscious man is the man-animal; the abstractive man is
+the average man and woman in the world to-day--the human who is evolving
+out of the mental into the spiritual consciousness. The specialist is the
+cosmic conscious one, the one who "catches a glimpse of his destiny."
+
+Balzac, in company with all who attain cosmic consciousness, had a great
+capacity for suffering; and this soul-loneliness became crystalized into
+spiritual wisdom, which he expressed in the words and in the manner most
+likely to be accepted by the world.
+
+How else can that divine union to which we are heirs and for which we are
+either blindly, consciously, or supra-consciously, striving, be described
+and exploited without danger of defilement and degeneracy, save and except
+by the phrase "unity with God"?
+
+All mystics have found it necessary to veil the "secret of secrets," lest
+the unworthy (because _unready_) defile it with his gaze, even as the
+sinful devotee prostrates himself hiding his face, while the priest raises
+the chalice containing the holy eucharist in the ceremony of the mass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+ILLUMINATION AS EXPRESSED IN THE POETICAL TEMPERAMENT
+
+
+Poetry is the natural language of cosmic consciousness. "The music of the
+spheres" is a literal expression, as all who have ever _glimpsed_ the
+beauties of the spiritual realms will testify.
+
+"Poets are the trumpets which sing to battle. Poets are the unacknowledged
+legislators of the world," said Shelley.
+
+Not that all poets are aware, in their mortal consciousness, of their
+divine mission, or of their spiritual glimpses.
+
+The outer mind, the mortal or carnal mind--that part of our organism whose
+office it is to take care of the physical body, for its preservation and
+its well-being, may be so dominant as, to hold in bondage the _atman_, but
+it can not utterly silence its voice.
+
+Thus the true poet is also a seer; a prophet; a spiritually-conscious
+being, for such time, or during such phases of inspiration, as he becomes
+imbued with the spirit of poetry.
+
+A person who writes rhymes is not necessarily a poet. So, too, there are
+poets who do not express their inspirations according to the rules of metre
+and syntax.
+
+Between that which Balzac tabulated as the "abstractive" type of human
+evolvement and that which is fully cosmic in consciousness, there are many
+and diverse degrees of the higher faculties; but the poet always expresses
+some one of these degrees of the higher consciousness; indeed some poets
+are of that versatile nature that they run the entire gamut of the
+emotional nature, now descending to the ordinary normal consciousness which
+takes account only of the personal self; again ascending to the heights of
+the impersonal fearlessness and unassailable confidence that is the
+heritage of those who have reached the full stature of the "man-god whom we
+await"--the cosmic conscious race that is to be.
+
+All commentators upon modern instances of Illumination unite in regarding
+Walt Whitman as one of the most, if not _the most_, perfect example of whom
+we have any record of cosmic consciousness and its sublime effects upon the
+character and personality of the illumined one.
+
+Whitman is a sublime type for reasons which are of first importance in
+their relation to character as viewed from the ideals of the cosmic
+conscious race-to-be.
+
+Moralists have criticized Whitman as immoral; religionists have deplored
+his lack of a religious creed; literary critics have denied his claim to
+high rank in the world of literature; but Walt Whitman is unquestionably
+without a peer in the roundness of his genius; in the simplicity of his
+soul; in the catholicity of his sympathy; in the perfect poise and
+self-control and imperturbability of his kindness. His biographers agree as
+to his never-failing good nature. He was without any of those fits of
+unrest and temperamental eccentricities which are supposed to be the "sign
+manual" of the child of the poetic muse.
+
+In Whitman it would seem that all those petty prejudices against any
+nationality or class of men, were entirely absent. He exalted the
+common-place, not as a pose, nor because he had given himself to that task,
+but because to him there was no common-place. In the cosmic perception of
+the universe, everything is exalted to the plane of _fitness_. As to the
+pure all things are pure, so to the one who is steeped in the sublimity
+of Divine Illumination, there is no high or low, no good or bad, no white
+or black, or rich or poor; all--all is a part of the plan, and, in its
+place in cosmic evolution, it _fits_.
+
+Whitman cries:
+
+"All! all! Let others ignore what they may, I make the poem of evil also, I
+commemorate that part also; I am myself just as much evil as good, and my
+nation is, and I say there, is in fact no evil."
+
+Compared to the religious aspect of cosmic consciousness in which, previous
+to the time of Illumination, the devotee had striven to rise to spiritual
+heights through disdaining the flesh, this note of Whitman's is a new
+note--the nothingness of evil as such; the righteousness of the flesh and
+the holiness of earthly, or human, love, bespeaks the prophet of the New
+Dispensation; the time hinted of by Jesus, the Master, when he said, "when
+the twain shall be one and the outside as the inside," as a sign and symbol
+of the blessed time to come when the kingdom he spoke of (not his personal
+kingdom, but the kingdom which he represented, the kingdom of Love), should
+come upon earth.
+
+Whitman's illumination is essentially poetic; not that it is not also
+intellectual and moral; but after his experience--at least an experience
+more notable than any hitherto recorded by him, in or about his
+thirty-fifth year--we find his conversation invariably reflecting the
+beauty and poetical imagery of his mind. He may be said to have lived and
+moved and had his being in a state of blissful unconsciousness of anything
+unclean or impure, or unnatural.
+
+This absence of _consciousness of evil_ is in no wise synonymous with a
+type of person who _exalts_ his undeveloped animal tendencies under the
+guise of liberation from a sense of sin. Neither is this discrimination
+easy of attainment to any but those who _realize_ in their own hearts the
+very distinct difference between the nothingness of sin and the pretended
+acceptance of perversions as purity.
+
+While we are on this point we must again emphasize the truth that cosmic
+consciousness cannot be gained by prescription; there is no royal road to
+_mukti_. Liberation from the lower _manas_ can not be bought or sold, it
+can not be explained or comprehended, save by those to whom the attainment
+of such a state is at least _possible_ if not _probable_.
+
+Illustrative of his sense of unity with all life (one of the most salient
+characteristics of the fully cosmic conscious man), are these lines of
+Whitman's:
+
+  "Voyaging to every port, to dicker and adventure;
+  Hurrying with the modern crowd, as eager and fickle as any;
+  Hot toward one I hate, ready in my madness to knife him;
+  Solitary at midnight in my back yard, my thoughts gone from me a long
+      while;
+  Walking the hills of Judea, with the beautiful gentle God by my side;
+  Speeding through space--speeding through Heaven and the stars."
+
+Oriental mysticism tells us that one of the attributes of the liberated one
+is the power to read the hearts and souls of all men; to feel what they
+feel; and to so unite with them in consciousness that we _are_ for the time
+being the very person or thing we contemplate. If this be indeed the test
+of godhood, Whitman expresses it in every line:
+
+  "The disdain and calmness of olden martyrs;
+  The mother condemned for a witch, burnt with dry wood, her children
+      gazing on;
+  The hounded slave that flags in the race, leans by the fence, blowing,
+      covered with sweat;
+  The twinges that sting like needles his legs and neck--the murderous
+      buckshot and the bullets;
+  All these I feel, or am."
+
+Seeking to express the sense of knowing and especially of _feeling_, and
+the bigness and broadness of life, the scorn of petty aims and strife; in
+short, that interior perception which Illumination brings, he says:
+
+  "Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? have you reckoned the earth
+      much?
+  Have you practised so long to learn to read?
+  Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?
+  Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all
+      poems;
+  You shall possess the good of the earth and sun--there are millions of
+      suns left;
+  You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
+      the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books;
+  You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me;
+  You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.
+  I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning and
+      the end;
+  But I do not talk of the beginning nor the end.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "There was never any more inception than there is now;
+  Nor any more youth or age than there is now;
+  And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
+  Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now."
+
+A perception of eternity as an ever-present reality is one of the
+characteristic signs of the inception of the new birth.
+
+Birth and death become nothing more nor yet less, than events in the
+procedure of eternal life; age becomes merely a graduation garment; God
+and heaven are not separated from us by any reality; they become every-day
+facts.
+
+Whitman tells of the annihilation of any sense of separateness from his
+soul side, in the following words:
+
+  "Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my
+      soul."
+
+He did not confound his mortal consciousness, the lower _manas_, with the
+higher--the soul; neither did he recognize an impassable gulf between them.
+
+While admittedly ascending to the higher consciousness from the lower,
+Whitman refused to follow the example of the saints and sages of old, and
+mortify or despise the lower self--the manifestation. He had indeed _struck
+the balance_; he recognized his dual nature, each in its rightful place and
+with its rightful possessions, and refused to abase either "I am" to the
+other. He literally "rendered unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," by
+claiming for the flesh the purity and the cleanliness of God's handiwork.
+
+In Whitman, too, we find an almost perfect realization of immortality and
+of blissfulness of life and the complete harmony and unity of his soul with
+_all there is_. Following closely upon the experience that seems to have
+been the most vivid of the many instances of illumination which he enjoyed
+throughout a long life, he wrote the following lines, indicative of the
+emotions immediately associated with the influx of illumination:
+
+  "Swiftly arose and spread around me, the peace and joy and knowledge that
+      pass all the art and argument of earth;
+  And I know that the hand of God is the elder hand of my own,
+  And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own,
+  And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my
+      sisters and lovers,
+  And that a kelson of creation is love."
+
+In lines written in 1860, about seven years after the first vivid instance
+of the experience of illumination which afterward became oft-recurrent,
+Whitman speaks of what he calls "Perfections," and from what he writes we
+may assume that he referred to those possessing cosmic consciousness, and
+the practical impossibility of describing this peculiarity and accounting
+for the alteration it makes in character and outlook.
+
+Says Whitman:
+
+  "Only themselves understand themselves, and the like of themselves,
+  As souls only understand souls."
+
+It has been pointed out that Whitman more perfectly illustrates the type of
+the coming man--the cosmic conscious race, because Whitman's illumination
+seems to have come without the terrible agonies of doubt and prayer and
+mortification of the flesh, which characterize so many of those saints and
+sages of whom we read in sacred literature. But it must not be inferred
+from this that Whitman's life was devoid of suffering.
+
+A biographer says of him:
+
+"He has loved the earth, sun, animals; despised riches, given alms to every
+one that asked; stood up for the stupid and crazy; devoted his income and
+labor to others; according to the command of the divine voice; and was
+impelled by the divine impulse; and now for reward he is poor, despised,
+sick, paralyzed, neglected, dying. His message to men, to the delivery of
+which he devoted his life, which has been dearer in his eyes (for man's
+sake) than wife, children, life itself, is unread, or scoffed and jeered
+at. What shall he say to God? He says that God knows him through and
+through, and that he is willing to leave himself in God's hands."
+
+But above and beyond all this, is the sense of oneness with all who suffer
+which is ever a heritage of the cosmic conscious one, even while he is, at
+the same time, the recipient of states of bliss and certainty of
+immortality, and melting soul-love, incomprehensible and indescribable to
+the non-initiate. Whitman's calm and poise was not that of the
+ice-encrusted egotist. It is the poise of the perfectly balanced man-god
+equally aware of his human and his divine attributes; and justly estimating
+both; nor drawing too fine a line between.
+
+  "I embody all presence outlawed or suffering;
+  See myself in prison, shaped like another man,
+  And feel the dull unintermitted pain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "For me the keepers of convicts shoulder their carbines and keep watch;
+  It is I left out in the morning, and barr'd at night.
+  Not a mutineer walks handcuffed to jail, but I am handcuffed and walk by
+      his side;
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Not a youngster is taken for larceny, but I go up too, and am tried and
+      sentenced.
+  Not a cholera patient lies at the last gasp but I also lie at the last
+      gasp;
+  My face is ash-colored--my sinews gnarl--away from me people retreat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  "Askers embody themselves in me, and I am embodied in them;
+  I project my hat, sit shame-faced and beg."
+
+If any one imagines that Whitman was not a religious man, let him read the
+following:
+
+  "I say that no man has ever yet been half devout enough;
+  None has ever yet adored or worshipped half enough;
+  None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the
+      future is."
+
+There is a sublime confidence and worship in these words which belittles
+the churchman's hope and prayer that God may be good to him and bless him
+with a future life. Whitman's philosophy, less specific as to method, is
+assuredly more certain, more faithful in effect. Whitman had the experience
+of being immersed in a sea of light and love, so frequently a phenomenon
+of Illumination; he retained throughout all his life a complete and perfect
+assurance of immortality.
+
+His sense of union with and relationship to all living things was as much a
+part of him as the color of his eyes and hair; he did not have to remind
+himself of it, as a religious duty.
+
+He experienced a keen joy in nature and in the innocent, childlike
+pleasures of everyday things, and at the same time possessed a splendid
+intellect.
+
+All consciousness of sin or evil had been erased from his mind and actually
+had no place in his life.
+
+
+ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
+
+In the case of Lord Tennyson, we have a definite recognition of two
+distinct states of consciousness, finally culminating in a clear experience
+of cosmic consciousness; this experience was so positive as to leave no
+doubt or indecision in his mind regarding the reality of the spiritual, and
+the illusory character of the external life.
+
+In truth Tennyson had so fixed his consciousness in the spiritual rather
+than in the external, that he looked out from that inner self, as through
+the windows of a house; he was prepared, as he said, to believe that his
+body was but an imaginary symbol of himself, but nothing and no one could
+persuade him that the real Tennyson, the _I am_ consciousness of being
+which was he, was other than spiritual, eternal, undying.
+
+Like so many others, notably Whitman, who have realized a more or less full
+degree of cosmic consciousness, Tennyson was deeply and reverently
+religious, although not partisanly connected with church work. Tennyson's
+early boyhood was marked by experiences which usually befall persons of the
+psychic temperament. As he himself described these states of consciousness,
+they were moments in which the ego transcended the limits of self
+consciousness and entered the limitless realm of spirit.
+
+They do not tabulate with the ordinary trance condition of the
+spiritualistic medium, who subjects his own self consciousness to a
+"control," although Tennyson always believed that the best of his writings
+were inspired by, and written under "the direct influence of higher
+intelligences, of whose presence he was distinctly conscious. He felt them
+near him and his mind was impressed by their ideas."
+
+The point which we emphasize is that these peculiar states of consciousness
+are not synonymous with the western idea of trance as seen in mediumship,
+although Tennyson uses the term "trance" in describing them.
+
+He says:
+
+"A kind of walking trance I have frequently had, quite up from boyhood,
+when I have been all alone. This has often come upon me through repeating
+my own name to myself silently until all at once, as it were, out of the
+intensity of the consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself
+seemed to dissolve and fade into boundless being."
+
+It is a fact that children of a peculiarly sensitive or psychic temperament
+seem to have strange ideas regarding the name by which they are called, and
+not infrequently become confused and filled with an inexplicable wonderment
+at the sound of their own name. This phenomenon is much less rare than is
+generally known.
+
+In Tennyson's "Ancient Sage" this experience of entering into cosmic
+consciousness is thus described:
+
+  "More than once when I
+  Sat all alone, revolving in myself,
+  The word that is the symbol of myself,
+  The mortal limit of the Self was loosed,
+  And passed into the nameless, as a cloud
+  Melts into heaven. I touched my limbs; the limbs
+  Were strange, not mine; and yet no shade of doubt,
+  But utter clearness, and thro' loss of self
+  The gain of such large life as matched with ours
+  Were sun to spark--unshadowable in words.
+  Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."
+
+Tennyson's illumination is certain, clearly defined, distinct and
+characteristic, although his poems are much less cosmic than those of
+Whitman and of many others. There is, however, in the above, all that is
+descriptive of that state of consciousness which accompanies liberation
+from the illusion--the _enchantment_ of the merely mortal existence.
+
+Words are, as Tennyson fitly says, but "shadows of a shadow-world"; how
+then may we hope to define in terms comprehensible to sense-consciousness
+only, emotions and experiences which involve loss of _self_, and at the
+same time gain of the _Self_?
+
+Tennyson's frequent excursions into the realm of spiritual consciousness
+while still a child, bears out our contention that many children not
+infrequently have this experience, and either through reserve or from lack
+of ability to explain it, keep the matter to themselves; generally losing
+or "outgrowing" the tendency as they enter the activities of school life,
+and the mortal mind becomes dominant in them. This is especially true of
+the rising generation, and we personally know several clearly defined
+instances which have been reported to us, during conversations upon the
+theme of cosmic consciousness.
+
+
+YONE NOGUCHI
+
+Any one who has ever had the good fortune to read a little book of verse
+entitled "From the Eastern Seas," by Yone Noguchi, a young Japanese, will
+at once pronounce them a beautiful and perhaps perfect example of verse
+that may be correctly labeled "cosmic."
+
+Noguchi was under nineteen years of age when he penned these verses, but
+they are thoughts and expressions possible only to one who lives the
+greater part of his life within the illumination of the cosmic sense. They
+are so delicate as to have little, if any, of the mortal in them.
+
+It is also significant that Noguchi in these later years (he is now only a
+little past thirty), does not reproduce this cosmic atmosphere in his
+writings to such an extent, due no doubt to the fact that his daily
+occupation (that of Professor of Languages in the Imperial College of
+Tokio), compels his outer attention, excluding the fullness of the inner
+vision.
+
+The following lines, are perfect as an exposition of spiritual
+consciousness in which the lesser self has become submerged:
+
+  "Underneath the shade of the trees, myself passed into somewhere as a
+      cloud.
+  I see my soul floating upon the face of the deep, nay the faceless face
+      of the deepless deep--
+  Ah, the seas of loneliness.
+  The silence-waving waters, ever shoreless, bottomless, colorless, have no
+      shadow of my passing soul.
+  I, without wisdom, without foolishness, without goodness, without
+      badness--am like God, a negative god at least."
+
+The almost perpetual state of spiritual consciousness in which the young
+poet lived at this time is apparent in the following lines:
+
+  "When I am lost in the deep body of the mist on a hill,
+  The universe seems built with me as its pillar.
+  Am I the god upon the face of the deep, nay--
+  The deepless deepness in the beginning?"
+
+And the following, possible of comprehension only to one who has glimpsed
+the eternal verity of man's spiritual reality, and the shadow-like quality
+of the external; could have been written only by one freed from the bonds
+of illusion:
+
+  "The mystic silence of the moon,
+  Gradually revived in me immortality;
+  The sorrow that gently stirred
+  Was melancholy-sweet; sorrow is higher
+  Far than joy, the sweetest sorrow is supreme
+  Amid all the passions. I had
+  No sorrow of mortal heart: my sorrow
+  Was one given before the human sorrows
+  Were given me. Mortal speech died
+  From me: my speech was one spoken before
+  God bestowed on me human speech.
+  There is nothing like the moon-night
+  When I, parted from the voice of the city,
+  Drink deep of Infinity with peace
+  From another, a stranger sphere. There is nothing
+  Like the moon-night when the rich, noble stars
+  And maiden roses interchange their long looks of love.
+  When I raise my face from the land of loss
+  Unto the golden air, and calmly learn
+  How perfect it is to grow still as a star.
+  There is nothing like the moon-night
+  When I walk upon the freshest dews,
+  And amid the warmest breezes,
+  With all the thought of God
+  And all the bliss of man, as Adam
+  Not yet driven from Eden, and to whom
+  Eve was not yet born. What a bird
+  Dreams in the moonlight is my dream:
+  What a rose sings is my song."
+
+The true poet does not need individual experiences of either sorrow or of
+joy. His spirit is so attuned to the song of the universe; so sympathetic
+with the moans of earthly trials, that every vibration from the heart of
+the universe reaches him; stabs him with its sorrow, or irradiates his
+being with joy.
+
+Jesus is fitly portrayed to us as "The Man of Sorrows"; even while we
+recognize him as a self-conscious son of God--an immortal being fully aware
+of his escape from enchantment, and his heirship to Paradise.
+
+Cosmic consciousness bestows a bliss that is past all words to describe and
+it also quickens the sympathies and attunes the soul to the vibrations of
+the heart-cries of the struggling evolving ones who are still travailing in
+the pains of the new birth. We must be willing to endure the suffering _in
+order that we may realize_ the joy; not because joy is the reward for
+suffering, but because it is only by losing sight of the personal self that
+we become aware of that inner Self which is immortal and blissful; and when
+we become aware of the reality of that inner Self, we know that we are
+united with _the all_, and must feel with all.
+
+It would be impossible in one volume to enumerate all the poets who have
+given evidence of supra-consciousness. As has been previously pointed out,
+all true poets are at least temporarily aware of their dual nature--rather,
+one should say, the dual phases of their consciousness. Many, perhaps, do
+not function beyond the higher planes of the psychic vibrations, but even
+these are aware of the reality of the soul, and the illusion of the
+sense-conscious, mortal life.
+
+Dante; the Brownings; Shelley; Swinbourne; Goethe; Milton; Keats; Rosetti;
+Shakespeare; Pope; Lowell--where should we stop, did we essay to draw a
+line?
+
+
+WORDSWORTH
+
+Wordsworth, the poet of Nature has given us in his own words, so clearly
+cut an outline of his Illumination, that we can not resist recording here
+the salient points which mark his experience as that of cosmic
+consciousness, transcending the more frequent phenomenon of
+soul-consciousness and its psychic functions.
+
+Wordsworth's Ode to immortality epitomizes the lesson of the Yoga
+sutras--out of The Absolute we come, and return to immortal bliss with
+consciousness added. Wordsworth also affords an excellent example of our
+contention that cosmic consciousness does not come to us at any specific
+age or time. Wordsworth distinctly says that as a child he possessed this
+faculty, as for example his oft-repeated words, both in conversation and in
+his biography:
+
+"Nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of
+death, as a state applicable to my own being. It was not so much from
+feelings of animal vivacity that my difficulty came, as from a sense of the
+indomitableness of the spirit within me. I used to brood over the stories
+of Enoch and Elijah, and almost to persuade myself that, whatever might
+become of others, I should be translated, in something of the same way, to
+heaven. With a feeling congenial to this, I was often unable to think of
+external things as having external existence, and I communed with all that
+I saw as something not apart from, but inherent in, my own immaterial
+nature. Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree,
+to recall myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality."
+
+In later life, Wordsworth lost the realization of this supra-consciousness,
+in what a commentator calls a "fever of rationalism"; but the power of that
+wonderful spiritual vision, pronounced in his youth, could not be utterly
+lost and soon after he reached his thirtieth year, he again becomes the
+spiritual poet, fully conscious of his higher nature--the cosmic conscious
+self.
+
+
+WILLIAM SHARP--"FIONA MACLEOD"
+
+A pronounced instance of the two phases of consciousness, is that of the
+late William Sharp, one of the best known writers of the modern English
+school.
+
+It was not until after the death of William Sharp, that the secret of this
+dual personality was given to the public, although a few of his most
+intimates had known it for several years. In the "Memoirs" compiled by
+Elizabeth Sharp, wife of the writer, we find the following:
+
+"The life of William Sharp divides itself naturally into two halves: the
+first ends with the publication by William Sharp of 'Vistas,' and the
+second begins with 'Pharais,' the first book signed _Fiona Macleod_."
+
+In these memoirs, the point is made obvious that _Fiona Macleod_ is not
+merely a _nom de plume_; neither is she an obsessing personality; a guide
+or "control," as the Spiritualists know that phenomenon. _Fiona Macleod_,
+always referred to by William Sharp as "she," is his own higher Self--the
+cosmic consciousness of the spiritual man which was so nearly balanced in
+the personality of William Sharp as to _appear_ to the casual observer as
+another person.
+
+It is said that the identity of _Fiona Macleod_, as expressed in the
+manuscript put out under that name, was seldom suspected to be that of
+William Sharp, so different was the style and the tone of the work of these
+two phases of the same personality.
+
+In this connection it may be well to quote his wife's opinion regarding the
+two phases of personality, answering the belief of Yeats the Irish poet
+that he believed William Sharp to be the most extraordinary psychic he
+ever encountered and saying that _Fiona Macleod_ was evidently a distinct
+personality. In the Memoirs, Mrs. Sharp comments upon this and says:
+
+"It is true, as I have said, that William Sharp seemed a different person
+when the Fiona mood was on him; but that he had no recollection of what he
+said in that mood was not the case--the psychic visionary power belonged
+exclusively to neither; it influenced both and was dictated by laws he did
+not understand."
+
+Mrs. Sharp refers to William Sharp and Fiona, as two persons, saying that
+"it influenced both," but both sides of his personality rather than both
+personalities, is what she claims. In further explanation she writes:
+
+"I remember from early days how he would speak of the momentary curious
+'dazzle in the brain,' which preceded the falling away of all material
+things and precluded some inner vision of great beauty, or great presences,
+or some symbolic import--that would pass as rapidly as it came. I have been
+beside him when he has been in trance and I have felt the room throb with
+heightened vibration."
+
+One of the "dream-visions" which William Sharp experienced shortly before
+his last illness, is headed "Elemental Symbolism," and was recorded by him
+in these beautiful words:
+
+"I saw Self, or Life, symbolized all about me as a limitless, fathomless
+and lonely sea. I took a handful and threw it into the grey silence of
+ocean air, and it returned at once as a swift and potent flame, a red fire
+crested with brown sunrise, rushing from between the lips of sky and sea to
+the sound as of innumerable trumpets."
+
+"In another dream he visited a land where there was no more war, where all
+men and women were equal; where humans, birds and beasts were no longer at
+enmity, or preyed on one another. And he was told that the young men of the
+land had to serve two years as missionaries to those who lived at the
+uttermost boundaries. 'To what end?' he asked. 'To cast out fear, our last
+enemy.' In the house of his host he was struck by the beauty of a framed
+painting that seemed to vibrate with rich colors. 'Who painted that?' he
+asked. His host smiled, 'We have long since ceased to use brushes and
+paints. That is a thought projected from the artist's brain, and its
+duration will be proportionate with its truth.'"
+
+In explanation of why he chose to put out so much of the creative work of
+his brain under the signature of a woman, and how he happened to use the
+name _Fiona Macleod_, Sharp explained that when he began to realize how
+strong was the feminine element in the book _Pharais_, he decided to issue
+the book under a woman's name and _Fiona Macleod_ "flashed ready-made" into
+his mind. "My truest self, the self who is below all other selves must find
+expression," he explained. The Self that is _above_ the other self is what
+he should have said. The following extracts are from the _Fiona Macleod_
+phase of William Sharp and are characteristic of the Self, as evidenced in
+all instances of Illumination, particularly as these expressions refer to
+the nothingness of death, and the beauty and power of Love. "Do not speak
+of the spiritual life as 'another life'; there is no 'other life'; what we
+mean by that, is with us now. The great misconception of death is that it
+is the only door to another world." This testimony corroborates that of
+Whitman as well as of St. Paul, notwithstanding all the centuries that
+separate the two. St. Paul did not say that man _will have_ a spiritual
+body, but that he _has_ a spiritual body as well as a corporeal body.
+
+After the experience of his illumination, William Sharp, writing as _Fiona
+Macleod_ constantly testified to the ever-present reality of his spiritual
+life; a life far more real to him than the sense-conscious life although he
+alluded to it as his dream. In one place he says:
+
+"Now truly, is dreamland no longer a phantasy of sleep, but a loveliness so
+great that, like deep music, there could be no words wherewith to measure
+it, but only the breathless unspoken speech of the soul upon whom has
+fallen the secret dews."
+
+Of the impossibility of adequately explaining the mystery of Illumination
+and the sensations it inspires, he says, speaking through the Self of
+_Fiona Macleod_: "I write, not because I know a mystery, and would reveal
+it, but because I have known a mystery and am to-day as a child before it,
+and can neither reveal nor interpret it."
+
+This is comparable with Whitman's "when I try to describe the best, I can
+not. My tongue is ineffectual on its pivots."
+
+Another sentence from _Fiona_:
+
+"There is a great serenity in the thought of death, when it is known to be
+the gate of Life."
+
+Like all who have gained the Great Blessing, the revelation to the mind of
+that higher Self, that _we are_, William Sharp suffered keenly. The despair
+of the world was his, co-equal with the Joy of the Spirit. Indeed, his is
+at once the gift and the burden of the Illuminati.
+
+Mrs. Mona Caird said of him: "He was almost encumbered by the infinity of
+his perceptions; by the thronging interests, intuitions, glimpses of
+wonders, beauties, and mysteries which made life for him a pageant and a
+splendor such as is only disclosed to the soul that has to bear the torment
+and revelations of genius."
+
+The burden of the world's sorrow; the longings and aspirations of the soul
+that has glimpsed, or that has more fully cognized the realms of the Spirit
+which are its rightful home; are ever a part of the price of liberation.
+The illumined mind sees and hears and feels the vibrations that emanate
+from all who are travailing in the meshes of the sense-conscious life; but
+through all the sympathetic sorrow, there runs the thread of a divine
+assurance and certainty of profound joy--a bliss that passes comprehension
+or description.
+
+Mrs. Sharp, in the final conclusion of the _Memoirs_ says "to quote my
+husband's own words--ever below all the stress and failure, below all the
+triumph of his toil, lay the _beauty of his dream_."
+
+In accordance with an oft-repeated request, these lines are inscribed on
+the Iona cross carved in lava, which marks the grave wherein is laid to
+rest the earthly form of William Sharp:
+
+  "Farewell to the known and exhausted,
+  Welcome the unknown and illimitable."
+
+And this:
+
+"Love is more great than we conceive, and death is the keeper of unknown
+redemptions."
+
+They are from his higher Self; from the illumined "Dominion of Dreams."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+METHODS OF ATTAINMENT: THE WAY OF ILLUMINATION
+
+
+Oriental philosophies recognize four important methods of yoga.
+
+Yoga is the word which signifies "uniting with God." From what has gone
+before in these pages, the reader will understand that unity with God means
+to us, the uncovering of the god-nature within or above, the human
+personality; it means the attainment and retainment in _fullness_ of cosmic
+consciousness. We do not believe that any one retains full and complete
+realization of cosmic consciousness and remains in the physical body. The
+numerous instances to which we allude in former chapters, are at best, but
+temporary flights into that state, which is the goal of the soul's
+pilgrimage, and the only means of escape from the "ceaseless round of
+births and deaths" which so weighed upon the heart of Gautama.
+
+The paths of yoga then, are the methods by which the mind, in the personal
+self, is made to perceive the reality of the higher Self, and its relation
+to the Supreme Intelligence--The Absolute.
+
+The various methods or paths are pointed out, but no one, nor all of these
+paths guarantees illumination as a _reward_ for diligence. That which is in
+the _heart_ of the disciple is the key that unlocks the door.
+
+These paths are called:
+
+_Karma Yoga; Raja Yoga; Gnani Yoga; Bhakti Yoga_.
+
+_Karma Yoga_ is the path of cheerful submission to the conditions in which
+the disciple finds himself, believing that those conditions are his because
+of his needs, and in order that he may fulfill that which he has attracted
+to himself. The admonition "whatever thy hand finds to do that doest thou
+with all thy heart," sums up the lessons of the path of Karma Yoga. The
+urge to achieve: to do; to accomplish; to strive and attain, actuates those
+who have, whether with conscious intent, or because of a vague "inward
+urge," devoted their lives to taking an active part in the material or
+intellectual achievements of the race.
+
+There are those who are blindly following (as far as their mental
+operations are concerned), the path of Karma Yoga; that is, they work
+without knowing why they work; they work because they are compelled to do
+so, as slaves of the law; these will work their way out of that necessity
+of fulfillment, in the course of time, even though they blindly follow the
+urge; but, if they could be made to work as masters of the conditions under
+which they labor, instead of as slaves to environment, they would find
+themselves at the end of that path. Karma Yoga would have been
+accomplished.
+
+"Work as those work who are ambitious" but be not thou enslaved by the
+delusion of personal ambition--this is the password to liberation from
+Karma Yoga.
+
+_Raja Yoga_ is the way of the strongly individualized _will_. "_Knowledge
+is power_" is the hope which encourages the disciple on the path of Raja
+Yoga. He seeks to master the personal self by meditation, by concentration
+of will; by self discipline and sacrifice. When the ego gains complete
+control over the mental faculties, so that the mind may be directed as the
+individual will suggests, the student has mastered the path of Raja Yoga.
+If his mastery is complete, he finds himself regarding his body as the
+instrument of the Self, and the body and its functions are under the
+guidance of the ego; the mind is the lever with which this Self raises the
+consciousness from the lower to the higher vibrations. The student who has
+mastered Raja Yoga can induce the trance state; control his dreams as well
+as his waking thoughts; he may learn to practice magic in its higher
+aspects, but unless he is extremely careful this power will tempt him to
+use his knowledge for selfish or unworthy purposes.
+
+Let the student of Raja Yoga bear in mind the one great and high purpose of
+his efforts, which should be: the realization of his spiritual nature, and
+the development of his individual self, so that it finally merges into the
+spiritual Self, thus gaining immortality "in the flesh."
+
+Does this "flesh" mean the physical body? Not necessarily, because this
+that we see and name "the physical body" is not the real body, any more
+than the clothing that covers it, is the person, although frequently we
+recognize acquaintances _by their clothing_. Immortality in the flesh
+means cessation from further incarnations, the last and present personality
+including all others in consciousness, until we can say, "I, manifesting in
+the physical, as so-and-so, am now and forever immortal, remembering other
+manifestations which were not sufficiently complete, but which added to the
+sum of my consciousness until now I _know myself a deathless being_."
+
+To those who seek the path of Raja Yoga, we recommend meditation upon
+Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, of which there are several translations, differing
+slightly as to interpretation. We have selected some of the most important,
+from the translations by Johnston. They are designed to make clear the
+difference between the self of personality, and the Self, or _atman_ which
+manifests in personality:
+
+"The personal self seeks to feast upon life, through a failure to perceive
+the distinction between the personal self and the spiritual man. All
+personal experience really exists for the sake of another: namely, the
+spiritual man. By perfectly concentrated meditation on experience for the
+sake of the Self, comes a knowledge of the spiritual man."
+
+The wise person seeks experience in order that he may attain to the
+standard of the spiritual man; doing all things for the lessons that they
+teach; working "as those work who are ambitious," and yet having no
+personal ambition. Looking on all life, and at the self of personality and
+knowing the illusion of the self he is raising the personal self to the
+spiritual plane; but always he has the handicap of the desires of the lower
+self, the personal, which "seeks to feast on life," because it is born of
+the external, and its inherent appetites are for the satisfaction and
+pleasures of that physical self.
+
+We do not say to look upon the body with its needs and its desires, as an
+enemy to be overcome; or that its allurements are dangerous although
+pleasurable. No. We say to the student, "control the desires of the body.
+Make them do the bidding of the Self, because it is only by so doing that
+you can gain the immortal heights of god-hood, looking down upon the
+fleeting dream of personality, with its so-called pleasures, as a bad
+nightmare compared to the joys that await the immortals."
+
+Therefore, concentrate upon experience for the sake of the Self that you
+are, and learn the lesson of your experience, throwing aside the experience
+itself, as you would cast aside the skin of an orange from which the juice
+had been extracted. Don't fill the areas of your mortal mind with
+rubbish--with memories of "benefits forgot;" or loves unrequited; or
+friendships broken; or misspent hours; or unhallowed words and acts.
+
+Cull from each day's experience all that helps to develop the spiritual
+man--all that will stand the test of immortality--kind words and deeds;
+principle maintained; a wrong forgiven; a service cheerfully extended; a
+tolerance and generosity for the mistakes of others as well as for your
+own. These seem small things to the personal self--the ambitious, the
+gloating, the sense-desiring self of the personality; we scarcely take them
+into account, but to the Self that is seeking immortality, these are the
+grains of wheat from the load of chaff; the diamond in the carbon; the
+wings upon which the spirit soars to realms of bliss.
+
+_Meditate upon this sutra._
+
+"By perfectly concentrated meditation upon the heart, the interior being,
+comes the knowledge of consciousness."
+
+The heart is the guide of the inner nature, as the head is of the outer.
+Love, the Most High God, is not born in the head, but in the heart. The
+heart travails in pain through sorrow and loss and compassion and pity and
+loneliness and aspiration and sensitiveness; and lo! there is born from
+this pain, the spiritual Self, which embraces the lesser consciousness,
+enfolding all your consciousness in the softness and bliss of pure,
+Seraphic Love--the heritage of your immortality.
+
+_Meditate long and wisely upon this sutra._
+
+"Through perfectly concentrated meditation on the light in the head, come
+the visions of the Masters who have attained; or through the divining power
+of intuition he knows all things."
+
+There is a point in the head, anatomically named "the pineal gland"; this
+is frequently alluded to as the seat of the soul, but the soul is not
+confined within the body, therefore, it is in the nature of a key between
+the sense-conscious self and the spiritually conscious Self; it is like a
+central receiving station, and may be "called up," and aroused to
+consciousness by meditation. Realizing and focusing the light of the
+spiritual nature upon this part of the head, opens up those unexplored
+areas of consciousness in which the masters dwell, and the student knows by
+intuition, which is a higher aspect of reason, many things which were
+heretofore incomprehensible to the merely sense-conscious man.
+
+The spiritual Self is not a being unlike and wholly foreign to our concept
+of the perfect mortal-man; all the powers of discernment which we find in
+mortal consciousness are accentuated, intensified, refined; all grossness,
+all imperfections and embarrassments removed; pleasure sensitized to
+ecstasy; love glorified to worship. "Shapeliness, beauty, force, the temper
+of the diamond; these are the endowments of that body."
+
+The spiritual body is shapely, strong, beautiful, imperishable, as the
+diamond, with all its brilliancy. No vapory, uncertain, or _unreal being_,
+but the Real, with the husk of sense-consciousness dropped off, and only
+the kernels of truth buried in the chaff of Experience, retained from the
+experiences of the personal self.
+
+"When the spiritual man is perfectly disentangled from the psychic body,
+he attains to mastery over all things and to a knowledge of all."
+
+The spiritual Self, the cosmic conscious Self, must not be confounded with
+the psychic body, which is formed from the emotions--passions; fears;
+hatreds; ambitions; resentments; envy; regrets. Know thyself as a being
+superior to all baser emotions, and the mastery over them is complete. They
+are not destroyed, but converted into love--the everlasting Source of Life.
+
+"There should be complete overcoming of allurement or pride in the
+invitations of the different regions of life, lest attachment to things
+evil arise once more."
+
+It is said that the disciples, seeking the paths of Yoga, reach three
+degrees or stages of development; first, those who are just entering the
+path; second, those who are in the realm of allurements, subject to
+temptations; third, those who have won the victory over the senses and the
+external life--_maya_; fourth, those who are firmly entrenched behind the
+bulwark of certainty; the spiritual being realized: cosmic consciousness
+attained and retained.
+
+"By absence of all self indulgence at this point, also, the seeds of
+bondage of sorrow are destroyed, and pure spiritual being is attained."
+
+Self-abnegation and self-sacrifice have ever been the way of spiritual
+development; but we are prone to misunderstand and mistake the true
+interpretation of this admonition; men shut themselves in monasteries and
+women become nuns and recluses _as a penance_, in order to purchase, as it
+were, absolution (at-one-ness with The Absolute, which knows not sin); this
+is not the point intended here. Spiritual consciousness can not be bought;
+the desires of the personal self may be _sublimated_ into divine force and
+power, through recognizing the desires of the self as baubles which attract
+and fill the eye, until we fail to see the glories of that which awaits us.
+
+"Thereafter, the whole personal being bends toward illumination, full of
+the spirit of Eternal Life."
+
+Here again, we have assurance that the spiritually-conscious man, the
+"luminous body" is not a being apart from the self that we know our inner
+nature to be, but rather it _is_ the inner Self even as we in our ignorance
+and our lack of initiation, know it, raised to a higher realm of
+consciousness; our desires refined, spiritualized, made pure, and our
+faculties strengthened and immortalized. We do not withdraw from experience
+but we draw from Experience the _lesson_--the hidden wisdom of the
+initiate.
+
+_Meditate upon these sutras._
+
+"He who, after he has attained, is wholly free from self, is set in a cloud
+of holiness which is called Illumination. This is the true spiritual
+consciousness."
+
+This aphorism is self-explanatory. He who attains illumination, and
+afterward lives and acts from the inner consciousness--the _spiritual man_,
+is free from the desires of the sense-conscious life, with its consequent
+disappointments; he sees everything from the spiritual, rather than the
+mental point of view, and understands the phrase "and behold, all was
+good."
+
+"_Thereon comes surcease from sorrow and the burden of toil._"
+
+The one who has attained cosmic consciousness, acting always from the Self,
+and not from personal desires, is set free from karma; he has fulfilled the
+cycle; he makes no more bondage for himself; he is free and is already
+immortal.
+
+"When that condition of consciousness is reached, which is far-reaching,
+and not confined to the body, which is outside the body and not conditioned
+by it, then the veil which conceals the light is worn away."
+
+The acquisition of spiritual consciousness, Illumination, endows the mortal
+mind also, with a degree of power sufficient to penetrate the veil of
+illusion--the _maya_; the disciple then sees for the first time, all things
+in their true light. The separation between the personal self, and the
+spiritual being that we are, is so fine as to be like a cob-web veil, and
+yet how few penetrate it. The suddenness with which this awakening (for it
+is like awakening from a dream of the senses), comes, startles and
+surprises us, and then we become astonished at the transparency of the
+bonds that bound us to the limitations of the mortal, when we might have
+soared to realms of light.
+
+"By perfectly concentrated meditation on the correlation of the body with
+the ether, and by thinking of it as light as thistle-down, will come the
+power to traverse the ether."
+
+The Zens say that the way of the gods is through the air and afterwards in
+the ether. This means that we must evolve from the physical to the psychic,
+and thence to the etheric or spiritual body. This is the way of the many.
+It is only the few who attain to perfect spiritual consciousness while
+manifesting in the physical, but these do not have to undergo "the second
+death" which is the dropping off of the psychic body, and assuming the
+spiritual body. They attain to immortality _in the flesh_, (i.e., in the
+present personality).
+
+"Thereupon will come the manifestation of the atomic and other powers,
+which are the endowment of the body, together with its unassailable force."
+
+The body here referred to, it must be borne in mind, is the etheric or
+spiritual body, which possesses the power to disintegrate matter; the power
+to annihilate time and space; so that he may look backward into remote
+antiquity and forward into boundless futurity; or as the commentator says,
+"he can touch the moon with the tip of his finger"; the power of levitation
+and limitless extension; the power of command; the power of creative will.
+
+These are the endowments of the spiritual body with which the disciple is
+seeking to establish his identity--that he may overcome the second death
+and become immortal _in consciousness_, here and now.
+
+Of this spiritual, or etheric body it is said, "Fire burns it not; water
+wets it not; the sword cleaves it not; dry winds parch it not. It is
+unassailable."
+
+_Meditate upon this sutra._
+
+"For him who discerns between the mind and the spiritual man (the Self)
+there comes perfect fruition of the longing after the real being."
+
+When the disciple has once grasped the fact that he _is_ a soul, and
+_possesses_ a mind and a physical covering, he has entered on the way of
+Illumination, and must inevitably reach the goal; then shall he find
+"perfect fruition of the longing" after the perfect Self, and its
+completement in union with the love that he craves. "Have you, in lonely
+darkness longed for companionship and consolation? You shall have angels
+and archangels for your friends and all the immortal hosts of the Dawn."
+
+Such are the Yoga sutras, or aphorisms, as enunciated by Patanjali.
+
+If the aspiring one were to give up a whole lifetime to their practice,
+gaining at last the consciousness of immortal life and love, what a small
+price to pay.
+
+_Raja Yoga_ with its methods and exercises, is the path of knowledge,
+through application; concentration; meditation.
+
+The practice of Raja Yoga will lead the student to the path of Gnani Yoga;
+and to the realization that Bhakti Yoga, the way of love and service will
+be included, not as an arduous task; not as a study, or as a means to an
+end, but because of the love of it.
+
+_Gnani Yoga_ comes as complementary to practice of the sutras because
+knowledge applied for the purpose of spiritual attainment brings _wisdom_.
+_Gnani Yoga_, then, is the path of wisdom. The follower of Gnani Yoga seeks
+the occult or hidden wisdom, and always has before him the idea of whether
+this or that be of the Self, the _atman_, or of the self, the personal,
+gradually eliminating from his desires all that does not answer the test of
+its reality in spiritual consciousness; he welcomes experiences of all
+kinds, as so many lessons from which he extracts the fine grain of truth,
+and throws aside the husks; he accepts nothing blindly or in faith, but
+"proves all things holding fast to that which is good"; not that he lacks
+faith, but because the very nature of his inquiry is to discover the
+interior nature and its relation to God.
+
+There are many in the world of to-day who feel the urge toward the path of
+Gnani Yoga, because of the conviction that is forcing itself upon every
+truly enlightened mind, that civilization with all its wonderful
+achievements, does not promise happiness, or solve the question of the
+soul's urge. In short, the educated, and the well conditioned, if he be a
+thinker, and not submerged in _maya_, lost in the personal self, inevitably
+finds himself searching for the _real_ in all this labyrinth of mind
+creations and sea of emotions, and then as a rule, he seeks the path of
+Gnani Yoga, because his intellect must be satisfied, even though his heart
+calls. The mystic, the teacher, and the philosopher are following the path
+of Gnani; so is the true occultist, but many who deal in so-called
+occultism are employing _knowledge_ only, entirely missing the higher
+quality--_wisdom_.
+
+_Bhakti Yoga_, the path of self-surrender; the thorny way through the
+emotions; the "blood of the heart," is the short cut to Illumination, if
+such a thing could be. But there is no "short cut"; nor yet a long road.
+
+Some one has said there are as many ways to God as there are souls. And
+yet, all persons who are on the upward climb, are demonstrating some one of
+these four paths, or a combination of the paths. It is, however, a
+significant fact that we do not hear anything of the great intellectual
+attainments of the three great masters--Krishna, Buddha and Jesus, but only
+of their great compassion; their wonderful love for mankind, and all living
+things.
+
+St. Paul, who was probably an educated man, as he held a position of
+prominence among those in authority, previous to his conversion, laid
+particular stress upon the love-nature as the way of illumination.
+
+And Jesus repeatedly said "Love is the fulfilling of the law." What is the
+law? The law of evolution and involution; of generation and regeneration;
+when the time should come, that Love was to reign on the planet earth as it
+does in the heavens above the earth, then should the kingdom of which he
+foretold "be at hand," and in conclusion of this _to-be_, Jesus promised
+that the law would be fulfilled when Love should come.
+
+So Swami Vivekananda in his exposition of Vedanta declares:
+
+"Love is higher than work, than yoga; than knowledge. Day and night think
+of God in the midst of all your activities. The daily necessary thoughts
+can all be thought through God. Eat to Him, drink to Him, sleep to Him, see
+Him in all. Let us open ourselves to the one Divine Actor, and let Him act
+and do nothing ourselves. Complete self-surrender is the only way. Put out
+self, lose it; forget it."
+
+Let us substitute for the words "God," and "Him," the one word Love, and
+see what it is that we are told to do.
+
+Love of doing good frees us from work, even though we labor from early dawn
+until the night falls; so, too, if we have some loved one for whom we
+strive, we can endure every hardship with equanimity, as far as our own
+comfort is concerned. Few human beings in the world to-day are so enmeshed
+in the personal self as to work merely for the gratification of selfish
+instincts. The hard-working man, whether laborer or banker, must have some
+one else for whom he struggles and strives; otherwise, he descends to a
+level below that of the brute.
+
+This is the reason for the family; the lodge; the community; the nation;
+there must be some motive other than the preservation of the personal self,
+in order to develop the higher quality of love which embraces the world,
+until the spirit of a Christ takes possession of the human and he would
+gladly offer himself a sacrifice to the world, if by so doing he could
+eliminate all the pain from the world.
+
+How natural it is to feel, when we see a loved one suffering, that we would
+gladly take upon ourselves that pain; the heart fills with love until it
+aches with the burden of it; this love enlarged, expanded and impersonal in
+its application is the same love with which we are told to love God, and to
+"do all for Him." Do all for love of all the other hearts in the Universe
+that feel as we feel when their loved ones suffer--that is the way to love
+God--it is the only way we know. We only know divine love through human
+love: human love is divine when it is unselfish and eternal--not fed upon
+carnality, but anchored in spiritual complement.
+
+The story of Abou Ben Adhem ("may his tribe increase") tells us how we may
+know who loves the Lord. The angel wrote the names of those who loved the
+Lord most faithfully and fully, and coming to Abou Ben Adhem asked if he
+should write his name, and received the reply that he could not say whether
+he deeply loved the Lord, but he was quite certain that the angel could
+"write me as one who loves his fellow-men." And, lo! when the list was made
+and the names of all who loved the Lord recorded, Abou Ben Adhem's name
+headed the list.
+
+The Vedanta philosophy teaches non-attachment and Vivekananda himself says:
+"To love any one personally is bondage. Love all alike then all desires
+fall off."
+
+To love only the personal self of any one binds us to the sorrow of loss
+and of separation and disappointment; but to love any one spiritually is to
+establish a bond which can never be broken; which insures reunion, and
+defies time and space.
+
+We can not love all alike, though we can love all humanity impersonally.
+All desires that have their root in the sense-conscious plane of
+expression, will fall off when the heart is anchored in spiritual love; but
+let it be understood that spiritual love is not opposed to human love; we
+do not grow into spiritual love by denying the human, but by plussing the
+human.
+
+Spiritual consciousness is all that is good and pure and noble, and
+satisfying in the mortal and infinitely more. It is the love of personal
+self _plus_ the _Self_--the _atman_.
+
+Love is never unrequited. It is never wasted; never foolish. Love is its
+own self-justification; if it be real love, and not vanity, or self
+admiration, misnamed, give it freely, and don't ask for a return; don't ask
+whither it leads; only ask if it is real--if the love you feel is for the
+object of your love, or if it is for yourself--for you to possess and to
+minister to your pleasure; ask whether it is from the senses or from the
+heart.
+
+The way of the _Bhakti yoga_, is the way of love and service, because
+service to our fellow beings, is the inevitable complement of love. Where
+we truly love, we gladly serve. It has been said: "The chela treads a
+hair-line." That is to say, the initiate must be prepared to meet defeat at
+every turn. Not defeat of his object of attainment, but the personal defeat
+that so many seek in the delusion that the world's ideal of success is the
+real success.
+
+In conclusion we can only repeat what has been told and retold many times
+by all inspired ones, of whatever creed and race; namely, think and act
+always from the _inner Self_, cheerfully taking the consequences of your
+choice. Let not the opinions of the illusory world of the senses balk and
+thwart you. Let not the "worldly-wise" swerve you from your ideal and your
+faith in the final goal of your earthly pilgrimage--the attainment of
+spiritual consciousness _in your present personality_; this is the meaning
+of immortality in the flesh Doubt not this.
+
+Make love your ideal; your guide; your final goal; look for the inner Self
+of all whom you meet. "Learn to look into the _hearts_ of men," says the
+injunction in Light on the Path; dismiss from your mind all the
+accumulation of traditional concepts and prejudices that are not grounded
+in love, and above all _falter not_, nor doubt--no matter what seeming
+hardships you encounter in your earthly pilgrimage; they are but the
+Indian-clubs of your soul's gymnasium--Experience. "Meet with Triumph and
+Disaster, and treat these _two impostors_ just the same."
+
+Triumph and Disaster as seen with the eyes of sense-consciousness are both
+illusions; but don't for this reason cease your work. The phrase "you must
+work out your own salvation" is true. So also, you must be willing to do
+your part in working out the salvation of the world; salvation means simply
+the realization of the spiritual Being that you are--the attainment of that
+state of Illumination which guarantees immortality.
+
+Experience teaches one important lesson: Our sense-conscious life is filled
+with symbolic language if we have the inner eye of discernment. An
+unescapable truth is symbolized in our daily life by the evidence that we
+get nothing for nothing. Everything has its price.
+
+Immortality godhood, will not be handed to you on a silver salver; neither
+can any one withhold it from you, if you desire it above all things. And,
+altho' it has its price, yet _you can not buy it_. A seeming paradox, but
+the Initiate will see it all clearly enough when the time comes.
+
+  "He who would scale the Heights of Understanding
+  From whence the soul looks out forever free
+  Must falter not; nor fail; all truth demanding
+  Though he bear the cross and know Gethsemane."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The discouraged student says to himself: "If Truth demands such sorrow and
+sacrifice as this, I will not serve her. It is a false god that would so
+try his devotees."
+
+Have you not said it?
+
+The toll you pay is not to the Divine Self within, but to the "keepers of
+the threshold," that guard the entrance to the dwelling place of the
+Illuminati.
+
+Earthly lodges and brotherhoods are symbols of the higher initiations.
+
+There is a common mistake in the idea that the invisible states of
+consciousness are chaotic, or radically different from the visible.
+
+"As below, so above, and as above so below" is an aphorism constantly held
+before the eyes of the would-be initiate. Each of whom, must interpret and
+know it for himself.
+
+If the student finds the Raja Yoga sutras difficult of comprehension or of
+practice let him meditate upon the following mantrams:
+
+I know myself to be above the false concepts which assail the personal self
+that I _appear_ to be. I am united with the All-seeing All-knowing
+Consciousness.
+
+I abide in the consciousness of the Indestructibility and Omniscience of
+Being. I rest secure and content in the integrity of Cosmic Law which shall
+lead my soul unto its own, guaranteeing immortal love.
+
+I unite myself with that Power that makes for righteousness. Therefore
+nothing shall dismay or defeat me, because I am at-one with the limitless
+areas of spiritual consciousness.
+
+My mind is the dynamic center through which my soul manifests the Love
+which illumines the world. Only good can come to the world through me.
+
+Much that is called Mental Science, New Thought and Christian Science has
+for its aim and ideal, avoidance of all that does not make for personal
+well-being, and worldly success. Avoid this ideal; distrust this motive. Be
+ever willing to sacrifice the personal self to the Real Self, _if need be_.
+If the ideal is truly the desire for _illumination_, and not for
+self-gratification, the mind will soon learn to distinguish between the
+lesser and the greater. Have you longed for perfect, satisfying _human_
+love?
+
+You shall have it plussed a thousand fold in immortal spiritual union with
+_your_ god.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY.
+
+
+In the foregoing chapters we have set forth only a few of the facts and
+instances which the inquirer will find, if he but seek, of the reality of a
+supra-conscious faculty, no less actual, than are the faculties of the
+sense-conscious human, which type forms the average of the race.
+
+This faculty, or rather we should say _these faculties_--because they find
+expression in many ways, through avenues correlative to the physical
+senses--prove the existence of a realm of consciousness, far above the
+planes of the mortal or sense-conscious man, and transcending the region
+known as the astral and psychic areas of consciousness.
+
+All who have reported their experiences in contacting this illimitable
+region unite in the essential points of experience, namely:
+
+The experience is indescribable.
+
+It confers an unshakable conviction of immortality.
+
+It discloses the fact that we are now living in this supra-conscious realm;
+that it is not something which we acquire after death; it _is_ not _to be_.
+
+This realm is characterized by a beautiful, wonderful radiant iridescent
+light.
+
+"_O green fire of life, pulse of the world, O love."_
+
+It fills the heart with a great and all-embracing love, establishing a
+realization of the silent Brotherhood of the Cosmos, demolishing all
+barriers of race and color and class and condition.
+
+Illumination is inclusive. It knows no separation.
+
+It announces the fact that every person is right from his point of view.
+
+"That nothing walks with aimless feet; that no one life shall be destroyed;
+or cast as rubbish on the void; when God hath made the pile complete."
+
+That Life and Love and Joy unutterable are the reward of the seeker; and
+that there is no one and only path.
+
+All systems; all creeds; all methods that are formulated and upheld by
+altruism are righteous, and that the Real is the spiritual--the external is
+a dream from which the world is awakening to the consciousness of the
+spiritual man--the _atman_--the Self that is ageless; birthless;
+deathless--divine. On all sides are evidences that the race is entering
+upon this new consciousness.
+
+So many are weary with the strife and struggle and noise of the
+sense-conscious life.
+
+The illusions of possessions which break in our hands as we grasp them; of
+empty titles of so-called "honor," builded upon prowess in war; the
+feverish race after wealth--cold as the marble palaces which it builds to
+shut in its worshippers--all these things are becoming skeleton-like and
+no longer deceive those who are even remotely discerning the new birth.
+
+The new heraldry will have for its badge of royalty "Love and Service to my
+Fellow Beings," displacing the "Dieu et mon Droit" of the ancient ideal.
+
+The Dawn is here. Are you awake?
+
+  "--In the heart of To-day is the word of To-morrow.
+  The Builders of Joy are the Children of Sorrow."
+
+
+
+
+Jesus The Last Great Initiate
+
+By EDOUARD SCHURE
+
+
+Mr. Schure in this volume, has done much to strengthen the belief that
+Jesus was an Essene, in whom a Messianic consciousness was awakened by
+special initiation.
+
+A remarkable full account is given of his experiences among the Essenes and
+how his early life, (about which the Bible is so reticent) was spent
+studying with the advanced Occult masters.
+
+The problem of how Jesus became the Messiah, he holds to be not capable of
+solution without the aid of intuition and esoteric tradition.
+
+The life of the great Teacher as pictured by the writer is one to be
+dreamed over and capable of imparting both knowledge and stimulus to that
+inner life which is in so many undeveloped and even unsuspected.
+
+Bound Silk Cloth.
+
+Price $0.80 Postpaid.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Krishna and Orpheus
+
+The Great Initiates of the East and West
+
+By EDOUARD SCHURE
+
+
+The lives and teachings of these two great Masters who preceeded Jesus are
+very much like the latter's. You cannot help noting the remarkable
+resemblance they bear to each other.
+
+Krishna's Virgin Birth, His Youth, Initiation, The Doctrine of the
+Initiates, Triumph and Death, are all told in a fashion that shows that
+Mr. Schure has devoted much time to thought and research work. The mighty
+religious of India, Egypt and Greece are passed in rapid review and the
+author declares that while from the outside they present nothing but chaos,
+the root idea of their founders and prophets presents a key to them all.
+
+Bound in Silk Cloth.
+
+Price $0.80 Postpaid.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 14002.txt or 14002.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/0/0/14002
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit:
+https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/old/14002.zip b/old/14002.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6cd7c8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/14002.zip